“He might be the most popular guy in Las Vegas” – Yang Hansen has been 2025 Summer League’s biggest sensation originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Yang Hansen may have been the biggest surprise of the 2025 NBA Draft. He was projected to go outside the first round, but the Portland Trail Blazers took a bold swing by selecting him 16th overall.
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But so far, the risk has paid off.
Hansen has become the breakout star of the Summer League, attracting a Chinese documentary crew to Las Vegas and drawing massive social media audiences.
“[Yang] might be the most popular guy in Las Vegas,” Blazers Summer League coach Ronnie Burrell said, per Ben Golliver of The Washington Post. “I got to play basketball internationally, and I understand what’s it like to play as a foreigner. To watch the grace and the joy he handles it with is impressive. I wasn’t able to do that, and I was older than him when I was traveling abroad. I’m amazed by him.”
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Massive Chinese following
At 7’1″, it’s hard to miss the 20-year-old center. However, it isn’t just Hansen’s height that has made him popular. The fact that he is the first Chinese player selected in the first round of the NBA draft since Yi Jianlian in 2007 is enough for the world’s most populous country to rally behind him.
Hansen has been nothing short of a phenomenon. According to Golliver, Tencent, the Chinese media company, has a film crew following him around. It was supposedly for a 10-part documentary series, not to mention dozens of journalists from the East Asian nation covering his games.
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Moreover, fans from China travelled to Sin City in droves, many of them wearing his No. 16 Blazers jersey.
Even more astonishing is that more than 5.2 million Chinese viewers watched Tencent’s free broadcast of the Blazers vs. Memphis Grizzlies game. That’s nearly five times the number of Americans who viewed Cooper Flagg‘s Summer League debut with the Dallas Mavericks (1.1 million).
Additionally, according to Golliver, one of Hansen’s Summer League games drew more than 3.4 million paid viewers, 16 times Tencent’s average.
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“Since the draft, Portland’s retail sales have increased 1,091 percent compared with 2024, and its TikTok account has collected more than 30 million views, according to a team official,” wrote Golliver. “In less than a month, the Blazers have added nearly 900,000 followers on Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, outpacing all other NBA teams in engagement during that time period.”
More than a novelty
Analysts and fans alike questioned the Blazers’ decision to draft Hansen. Some believed the moves had more to do with marketing than basketball. Even if that were true, it’s not the worst way to attract more fans.
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However, aside from having a massive following behind him, Hansen is very skilled as a player. He has a penchant for squeezing the ball into tight places only his teammates could reach, and a fun, nonchalant personality.
In four Summer League games, Hansen averaged 10.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game before being shut down. He recorded a total of 15 assists over that span.
Of course, Hansen is still raw in some aspects. He is slow on his feet has to develop an outside shot to get meaningful rotation minutes. At this point, he should be behind Donovan Clingan and Robert Williams III in Portland’s depth chart, but given the latter’s injury history and Clingan’s offensive limitations, he might get a shot sooner than most people think.
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If Hansen’s Summer League performance is any indication, the Blazers might have done more than stumble into a marketing win. He could be a contributor who brings something different to the table at the center position.
And if he holds his own once the real games begin, Portland won’t just have China’s attention. They’ll have everyone’s.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 22, 2025, where it first appeared.