Bonding on Both Sides of the Ball

As much as Yao Ming savored his 2002 arrival in Houston as an NBA rookie, either feasting on Texas barbecue or catching a rodeo show, Triston Naquin of the United States had a blast on his first China trip — one as eye-opening as Yao’s adventure on the other side of the world 20 years earlier.

Invited to take part in a basketball exchange program in Beijing last month with California-based Veritas Academy, teen prospect Naquin knew he had a chance to fulfill his bucket-list goals in a country he’d long wished to visit.

The 17-year-old forward from Westwego, Louisiana, ended up with almost everything ticked off after a weeklong stay in the Chinese capital, including taking part in the 2026 Hoops Beyond International Basketball Challenge. Yet it still didn’t seem enough.

“Just how polite the people are here and how great the real Chinese food is, especially the noodles ... those impressed me the most,” Naquin said of his biggest takeaways from the trip.

“It’s a very special program, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get to know China. I am so glad I made the most out of it.”

Over two decades on, the game that once helped Yao bridge the culture gap between China and the U.S. and become an NBA legend is providing young talent from both countries with even more opportunities for people-to-people exchanges.

The Hoops Beyond tournament is the latest such effort. Launched by the Chinese Basketball Association with ambitions to develop into an annual program. This year, from Sept 1-5, it brought 21 international student athletes from two prep school teams — Veritas and Phoenix-based CIA Bella Vista — to play exhibition games with Tsinghua University High School and China’s under-18 national squad at west Beijing’s Shougang Ice Hockey Arena.

In a never-before-seen initiative, all players at the camp entered a mixed draft following the round-robin phase, where each of the four coaches selected a reshuffled team from the blended pool to play in the knockout round.

“It’s challenging, but a lot of fun at the same time,” said Settimo Yugu, a Bella Vista forward, who joined seven Chinese peers on a new team renamed Truth coached by Veritas mentor George Zedan.

“It took some time, but once we got the chemistry going, there wasn’t much of a bump in communication. The game itself speaks its own language,” said the 17-year-old all-rounder, who scored a game-high 38 points in the final to help Team Truth win the tournament.

The exposure shed immediate light on China’s own talent, with 16-year-old prospect Zhang Yuchen confirming right after the tournament that he will join Bella Vista and play in the U.S. high-school league.

Zhang’s journey to the West is just the latest example of how closer exchanges between the two countries’ sports communities help reshape China’s talent system, with over 30 young prospects, including females, set to play in the U.S. high-school and NCAA Division I leagues in the 2026-27 season.

A partnership extension signed by the CBA and NBA China during the league’s China Games tour in October last year ensured that more Chinese basketball talent will find its way to U.S. shores thanks to new collaborative projects, such as inviting Chinese national squads to train and compete in the NBA Summer League and preseason WNBA games, as well as offering young Chinese prospects the chance to train at the NBA Academy and NBA G League tryout camps.