Ex-NBA star Zhou Qi apologises after China basketball legend calls him ‘big shot’ for turning up late to interview
- Zhou, who left Houston Rockets in December after two years, arrives 55 minutes late for interview with former national team player Wang Shipeng
- ‘You should finally know why you can’t play in the NBA – it’s not because of your skills, it’s your conduct,’ Wang said, but the two have made up
Chinese basketball legend Wang Shipeng said he has accepted an apology from Zhou Qi after originally slamming the former NBA star for “playing big shot” when turned up nearly an hour late for an interview.
Former national team star Wang, who retired from the CBA Guangdong Southern Tigers three years ago, did not mention Zhou’s name in an outburst on his Weibo micro blog earlier this week. But with the Rockets being mentioned, it was clear he was referring to the 23-year-old Zhou, who left the NBA side in December after two disappointing seasons.
“You should finally know why you can’t play in the NBA, it’s not the problem of your skills, it’s because of your conduct,” Wang said. “Maybe the Rockets thought they might produce another superstar even bigger than Chris Paul and James Harden.
“Something you have promised, but then you changed it from seven o’clock to nine o’clock. We waited for an hour from nine and eventually you said you were not coming.”
Wang, who won eight CBA titles with Southern Tigers and was the 2011 CBA finals MVP, having started with Guangdong in the CBA in 1999 when he was only 16, said he had never tried to come across as such a “big shot” in his career.
“Before I have heard something that I dare not to believe, but now I have no doubt about what I have heard,” he said. “I will give you more details later but at the moment I want to tell you that you mean nothing in my eyes.”
Wang also showed a picture of a camera crew waiting for Zhou on his Weibo post, with the retired player now running basketball promotional activities.
Through his agent, Zhou said his late arrival for the interview was not intentional and that he was not trying to act like a “big shot”. He said he got caught up in traffic after meeting his father, who specially came to Beijing to see Zhou before the player left again for the US.
By the time he arrived at the interview site, he was 55 minutes late and Wang had already left. His agent said Zhou apologised when he called Wang after his training session on Thursday.
Wang later posted on his Weibo saying he had forgiven Zhou after the youngster made a sincere apology, and wanted put a full stop on the incident.
“The China national team is preparing for the World Cup and I hope the whole team can fully focus on the tournament,” he said.
Zhou looked like the next big thing in Chinese basketball when he was declared for the 2016 NBA draft after playing for the Xinjiang Flying Tigers for two seasons, getting selected with the 43rd overall pick by Houston.
He made his NBA debut on October 21, 2017, playing eight minutes in the fourth quarter of the Rockets’ 107–91 win over the Dallas Mavericks. Two weeks later, Zhou scored his first NBA points, finishing with three points against the New York Knicks.
During his rookie season, Zhou had multiple assignments to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League before leaving the Rockets six months ago.
