Canzano: Yang Hansen won the week
Is there an NBA China strategy in play with the pick?
The Trail Blazers introduced their newest draft pick in a news conference on Friday. Yang Hansen wore a white team-issued polo shirt and the grin of a 20-year-old. At 7-foot-2, Hansen has altitude going for him. But it was his innocent performance that I liked most of all.
What does Hansen do when he’s not playing basketball?
“I sleep… I play PS5… and I like to eat,” he said.
The kid’s charm has been all over my social media algorithm in the last couple of days. It wasn’t just that he sleeps, eats, and plays video games. He turned that answer into an all-time quote with the way he looked around the room, smiling and giggling as he said it.
I don’t know if he’s going to stick in the league, be a star, and make General Manager Joe Cronin look like a genius, but Hansen won his first news conference. His interpreter sat beside him, measuring his words in Mandarin and carefully sharing answers in English.
Hansen handled the “… what do you do?” question by himself in English. His delivery was so pure, innocent, and authentic, I wondered why someone didn’t ask him where he stores his halo.