Zhou Qi played in China’s last National Games for Liaoning. Now Sichuan has ‘bought’ him
‘What’s the point of the National Games?’ a fan asks after basketball star’s change of allegiance, while another calls it ‘buying results’
Chinese fans have questioned the purpose of the basketball competition in this year’s National Games after it was revealed that the country’s star player Zhou Qi had ditched the Liaoning team to play for Sichuan.
Former Houston Rockets player Zhou has accepted a 6 million yuan (US$826,000) payday to play for the southwestern province during the Games, which will take place in November and are being co-hosted by Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong.
Sichuan have added Zhou to three other current national team players, in forward Hu Jinqiu and guards Sun Minghui and Zhao Yanhao, with the first two reportedly having pocketed 5 million yuan each.
Basketball fans were left puzzled by the logic behind it, with one from Henan querying Zhou’s eligibility.
“Zhou was from Henan, he was trained in Liaoning, why could he play for Sichuan then?” a social media comment read.
Another commenter asked: “Why were players allowed to not play for their own provinces?”