{"id":175849,"date":"2025-07-17T01:45:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T01:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/175849\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T01:45:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T01:45:23","slug":"trail-blazers-yang-hansen-discusses-summer-league-win-vs-pelicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/175849\/","title":{"rendered":"Trail Blazers\u2019 Yang Hansen Discusses Summer League Win vs. Pelicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s just NBA Summer League<\/a>, but three games in, rookie Yang Hansen is living up to the hype that has followed him since the Portland Trail Blazers took him No. 16 overall in June\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n

The 7-foot-1 big man played another superb game Tuesday night in Las Vegas, helping the Blazers discard the New Orleans Pelicans 93-87 down the stretch. Yang registered 15 points, three rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal while shooting 6-13 from the field. He also took the jump shot out of the garage in the win, going 3-6 from long distance.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

After the game, Yang once again met with a large scrum of reporters for media availability. These interviews have quickly become must-see content for Trail Blazers fans. That\u2019s in part because of the novelty of seeing the interview process carried out with an interpreter, but also because of Yang\u2019s entertaining personality. The 20-year-old works in a healthy mix of candid answers, the necessary sports PR talk and a few jokes. Here\u2019s what he had to say Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Yang on how he felt the team performed against New Orleans, particularly in the fourth quarter when Portland mounted a comeback:<\/p>\n

\u201cFirstly, we just played together and played as a team. We just hustled for that moment, and we caught them back and got the win in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how he performed with conditioning after a few more days off before the game this time:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure, the off-days helped me get more of my legs back, but I still need to improve my conditioning, and also, after some running I still can\u2019t breathe sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how he felt his shot has come along, and how much practice he put into his 3-point celebration:<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the game, we played a joke with each other, and [Portland guard Sean Pedulla] told me, \u2018Yo, Hansen, if you do that, you might make us crazy on the bench.\u2019 And also [Portland forward Andrew Carr] made a bet with me. He said, \u2018Hansen, you\u2019re scared to do that. I\u2019ll bet you $100.\u2019 So I earned that, but I don\u2019t take it, but I told A.C., \u2018Dinner on you one time.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his biggest improvement from the start of Summer League to now:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was my career-high in 3-pointers made, my whole career.\u201d<\/p>\n

On what adjustments he and the team have made during Summer League:<\/p>\n

\u201cJust follow the team schedule, follow the trainer, follow the strength coach, and just do my job every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

On what he thinks about Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, who was sitting courtside, saying that he loves Yang\u2019s game (Yang gave this answer in English):<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, I love you, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

On which one player he wants to play against in the regular season:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got no rights to pick. Everyone will maybe bully me.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how he felt about playing against Pelicans rookie Derik Queen:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great player. He\u2019s strong, and he\u2019s a good rebounder offensively and defensively. So I think I can learn from him and what he\u2019s doing good.\u201d<\/p>\n

On if his 3-pointers were a special strategy the coach laid out for him in this game:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I did exactly the opposite side of what Coach said to me. He said they wanted me to roll more, but today, maybe I was a little bit tired, so I just stayed on the 3-point line at the top of the key. And when the ball went to me, I took the shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how he stopped saying \u201cmy bad\u201d on the court after Blazers coach Chauncey Billups told him to stop, but against New Orleans he said \u201cmy fault\u201d after some mistakes:<\/p>\n

\u201cI will follow his execution. Coach told me don\u2019t say \u2018my bad\u2019 so I don\u2019t say it. But when I make a mistake, I have to take some responsibility on my shoulder, so I have to say something to my teammate to show him my apology.\u201d<\/p>\n

On some of the English phrases his teammates have been teaching him:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I say something illegal, just cut it out, please. [Now Yang switches to English]: \u2018Good sh\u2014.\u2019 \u2018What the helly?<\/a>\u2019 [Yang switches back to Chinese]: Some illegal words. I can\u2019t say that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how \u201cbet\u201d is one of the phrases they have been teaching him:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say that to them, it looks like they feel really happy when I say that. I work on my English.\u201d<\/p>\n

On what his plans are when Summer League finishes:<\/p>\n

\u201cI got two more games \u2014 one with the Rockets, one is to be decided. So I just try to focus on those two games first, and then when Summer League finishes, I will see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Yang, Blazers Summer League head coach Ronnie Burrell spoke with reporters after Tuesday\u2019s win<\/a>. He discussed how the team, Yang, and other individuals players performed against New Orleans, among other topics.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Blazers\u2019 next Summer League game is against the Houston Rockets<\/a> Thursday at 5 p.m. Pacific on NBATV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s just NBA Summer League, but three games in, rookie Yang Hansen is living up to the hype…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,41,601,7244,43,28,22418,2501,6,478,470,4073,4072,675,42,3166,688,9349,28350,143,946,794],"class_list":{"0":"post-175849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazer","10":"tag-blazers","11":"tag-discusses","12":"tag-edge","13":"tag-front-page","14":"tag-hansen","15":"tag-league","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-new-orleans","18":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","19":"tag-neworleans","20":"tag-neworleanspelicans","21":"tag-pelicans","22":"tag-s","23":"tag-summer","24":"tag-trail","25":"tag-trail-blazers-roster","26":"tag-trail-blazers-videos","27":"tag-vs","28":"tag-win","29":"tag-yang"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114866049779759560","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}