 Can these Asian basketball players be successful in the NBA? We are here for Asian basketball watch. Let's talk about it. Oh, yeah. Don't you know? Have you guys ever heard about maple? Yeah, and we are talking about division one basketball players potentially transitioning to the NBA. But also, why does everybody doubt them so much? And can they beat the doubters? So make sure you like, subscribe and turn your notifications into but you know what's an Asian thing that people are not doubting right now. Don't doubt small ass sauce, especially for the people who have tried it, guys. Check out the Instagram. Lots of people are reposting it. I just put it in my hot cocoa yesterday. And let me tell you this. It worked. It was delicious. It's not for the faint of heart. It's got a nice kick though, but check it out. A lot of computing news right now, Andrew. Here's an article saying you're going to lose anyway. Asian-American athletes face stereotypes across sports. However, Andrew, on the other end, seven-four, half-white, half-Chinese center, Zach Eadie from Toronto, Canada, just led Purdue to a win over number one ranked Arizona and NCAA Division One basketball. And he had 22, nine and five. So it's almost like there's some articles coming out about why people doubt Asians in these like big, high-contact sports. And there's also some examples of people breaking it. Right. Well, we're going to talk about some of the top D1 players that are Asian, that are in also some players who are in the G League. There are also Asian right now. So, David, first of all, let's go to Zach Eadie. He won National Player of the Year last year. He almost went to the NBA. He went to the Combine, which is the tryout. But he decided to go back to Purdue for one more year. He might win National Player of the Year again, but on the projected NBA drafts, people have him going at the end of the second round, barely getting drafted. Right. What's going on? All right, long story short, they say that his style of play, because college basketball still runs off old-school basketball inside out. The NBA has switched to an outside in style, and they're saying that his archetype, while it still may be dominant in the old-school college game, may be more relevant overseas than it is in modern-day NBA. Right, because the NBA is very heavily guard-focused, a lot of long, quick wingmen that are 6'6", 6'7". Well, everybody's like 6'9". It's like Lamello's the point guard, and everybody else is like 6'10". I mean, would you say the biggest worry about Zach Eadie? First of all, he is really good. He's very skilled. He does kind of play like Yao Ming, and I'm not just saying that because he's half Chinese. I mean, play the highlights right now. It looks like Yao Ming. He literally kind of moves like Yao Ming, but here's the thing. He's slower than Yao. Yes. And he is just slow, and even Yao... I think he jumps a little better than Yao, but he's slow. And Yao played 20 years ago. Yeah, and people are afraid of his foot speed, because they're like, how can he get out on guards? There's a lot of like quick big men. Big men are starting to shoot more. Can he shoot? He can't really shoot that well. He's definitely more of a, you know, low post threat. So I guess that's the worry, but it's sad because David, as an Asian, I'm like, yeah, listen, man, I mean, he's 7-4, and he's national player of the year, maybe two times in a row. I would say he's Asian presenting. How could you not... Yeah, how could you not give him a chance, though? Yeah, I'll say this. He only picked up basketball seven years ago. He was primarily playing baseball and hockey, because I think, you know, his dad is white, his mom's Chinese, so they probably like didn't... You know what I mean? Like the dad's sports were more dominant in his life. So it means that theoretically, Andrew, his IQ and his skill sets have a lot of room to grow. So some people, you know how like they look at a guy who picks up something really late in life, and you can either look at that as a pro or a con. You can either look at it like, man, he's never gonna get the IQ reads of somebody who's been playing their whole life like Yao Ming, because Yao Ming actually had a very high schematic IQ, or you can look at it like he's got all that room to grow. Right, right. I mean, I think ultimately, I believe he will win national player of the year again in Division I basketball, but, and I think he will get drafted, and it depends if an NBA team can find places to put him like a Boban Marjanovic, where Boban can't really shoot either. I mean, I'm not saying... I think Zach can shoot more. I just think the schemes that produce runs, he's not allowed to showcase that. Right, right, right. So I guess ultimately, Andrew, I took a look at the chart versus him, versus a lot of other seven, three players. He's still having the best D1 season, versus like Taco Fall and Hashim Tabeet and everybody else who couldn't stick in the league. Right. He's ranking analytically higher than them. Yeah, no. I mean, my prediction is overall for Zach Edie, he's going to get drafted. It is going to take a particular situation on a team for him to get a lot of burn. I don't think every team wants him. What, like how much, what would you say, out of the 30 teams, how many teams would not? Out of the 30 teams, I think there's like six or seven teams that are going to be like, yo, we could use a Zach Edie. We'll work with him and see what happens. Right, to see if he can get the other team in the foul trouble in a mismatch or something. But there's going to be other teams who are just like, ah, big man, that's slow. I just don't want it. Right. And that's okay. But I think Zach Edie, he's going to get a shot in the NBA. And if at worst, he can't make it in the league, there's a whole bunch of other leagues in the world. I'm sure he will be able to make millions playing in Europe where there's no three in the key. So his huge body, they can camp out, be a defensive menace. And let's not enter. Let's be honest. The CBA. Dude, he would dominate in the CBA and dominate in the Asian basketball leagues. We got to keep it real here, Andrew. Last question on Zach Edie. Do you think NBA teams will take an extra long look because of the potential to market him in China? I think it depends on his ability to speak Mandarin. I think he speaks some, but I don't know how good it is. It's very rudimentary. Yeah, you know, and probably more than average, right? His mom's actually a CBC. She's born again. I don't think, I think it's going to be a consideration, but not entirely. Okay. They're not going to be quite like Yao Ming because Yao Ming is from China. He's from the Chinese system. You know, it's not like Utah from Japan because Utah is from Japan. Roy Hachimura from Japan. Yeah, even Roy Hachimura, even though he's only half Japanese, blood-wise, he's like from Japan. So obviously it's a little different. Moving on, Andrew. We're talking about Xavian Lee. Whoa, guys. You might have not heard. Shout out to Amazing HQ. Follow them for all the updates on Asian Hoopers and Asian just athletes in general. Andrew, I got a new nickname for Xavian Lee. What? Kinesian Reeves. Because he plays a lot. He's Canadian Asian and he looks like Austin Reeves when he plays almost to a 100 out of 100 match. David, do you want to say his stats right now for Princeton? First of all, he plays on Princeton. You're like, oh, Princeton, that's an Ivy League school. They're not bad. And they're in a tough conference. I mean, they play tough teams. 18.15 rebounds, three assists with a pretty good field goal percentage for a swing man. Guys, I believe the Princeton record as of now is like nine and three. They're good. That's a good team. He's actually considered one or two or possibly the best player in the Ivy League right now. So we could be looking at a Jeremy Lin situation. I believe Xavian Lee is raised by his mother. His mother is Korean. I believe his dad is half white, half black. Some people think in 2024, Andrew, Xavian Lee has surprised everybody. And next year, if he continues to extrapolate his upward arc, he will be a 2024 second round draft pick. Do you believe in him more? Like some people believe in him more because his game looks like a modern game. Yeah. So here's my thing about Xavian. Super skilled. I think he's one of the most... He's a really skilled Asian guard. He's 6'3", 171 pounds right now. That's pretty light. He's going to have to get more muscle over the next year. At least 15 to 20 pounds, right? Yeah. I mean, realistically, 20 is a lot, but at least 10 to 15 pounds. He's going to have to put it on. A lean muscle, right? A lean muscle. And he's going to need to, I guess, strengthen the joints to support the newfound muscle. And I do think it's going to come down to defense. At 6'3", you're not... That's not tiny for the NBA, but that's not tall. That's an average point guard size. That's Steph Curry, Chris Paul 6'1", Steph Curry 6'3". He could still grow. He could still grow. Yeah, yeah. Two inches would be huge. I'm not betting on him growing at this point. But anyways, he's going to have to be able to play defense in the league at the league level. I think that at the very least, even if he's not drafted in 2024, it could help him to come out and not get drafted and get a training camp contract so he can start getting put in a pro system. But obviously, nowadays in 2023 with the NIL deals, Andrew... Oh, wait, I was going to say, him and Zach, it's hard for them to monetize because they're Canadian. The NIL deals are mostly for Americans. Oh, interesting. The Canadians have different rules. Oh! So it actually limits their money, making potential a little bit. I just realized... What, Canadian citizens? Yeah, it limits it. They have to wait until they are out of the country. I don't know, they have weird rules around it. I'm not too clear on the exact extrapolations of it. But shout out to Xavier and Lee, Andrew. Oh, he's balling. He's balling out. Do you think that he's going to be really inspirational because a lot of people want to play like him? Whereas, versus Zach Eadie, it's almost like he's more like an Asian Greg Ocertag mixed with Yao Ming. It's tough to relate to it because he's 7-4 even though everybody's rooting for him. We actually know a lot of people in Canada that are on his team. Andrew, number three, moving on, we got Jeon Suk-yu from Korea playing at Gonzaga for his first year right now. They call in Gonzaga the Duke West. They're getting a lot of really high recruits. And they actually get a ton of players with interesting backgrounds. The only Mexican player in the NBA right now, Hami Haquez, came from Gonzaga as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They also had a Roy, came from Gonzaga. Oh, Roy Hachimura. So they love Asians there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, Kai Soto was signed. I believe Fan Bo Tung committed to Gonzaga, but decommitted to go to the Julie. Jeon Jung Lee went to... Oh, wait, he was from Davidson. Right. Anyway, yeah. Anyway, this Jeon Suk-yu, Andrew, he's kind of like a modern-day 6'8", like guard-like swingman, right? I think a lot of people got high hopes for him. He performed really well on the international level. He still played against people like Chet and Wen Benyatta. He did play against them and he performed okay, you know? And overall, he's a 6'8", mobile guard, 220 pounds. He's got a little muscle on him. He can shoot. I mean, really, to me, what's going to hold him back, obviously, you got to see how he plays out at Gonzaga. That's going to be huge. But he has good potential to make the league. Yeah, well, he fits sort of like what the league is looking for, somebody who's multi-skilled. Maybe the only downside right now is he doesn't really stand out in one area. You know what I mean? Even though he hits all the pre-wrecks, he might not be going way over the pre-wreck threshold in any particular area. I think it's going to be key that he stands out at Gonzaga and like, what are you going to need him for? But I will say this physically, he can hang in the NBA. It looks like he can hang. Jeon Jung Lee, Andrew, he just left Gonzaga. He went to go to the G League, to the Santa Cruz Warriors, but then he left the G League to go get pro reps in the NBL in Australia, which is obviously the Australian pro league. Famously, Lamello Ball went there for a year. Yeah, he's from Davidson, right? So he went there partially because of Steph Curry. Yes, yes, and I would say at Davidson, he played a little bit like Davis Bertans. Yeah, not Steph. He's not, sorry, he's not the Asian Steph guys, to be honest. He's more of the Asian Bertans, but he's pretty good. Sharp shooter, kind of tall, lanky. So he's got the length. He kind of has a high release point, so that's helpful. But I think in general, a lot of people are wondering of foot speed and can he play defense? And I think the Asian Steph is more Kago Kamenaga, who played on the Japan national team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That guy's more Asian Steph. Shout out to Kago, shout out to Kago. We'll see where he goes. But David, yeah, Jeon Jung Lee, I think that, so he left G League. He's now playing NBL. Going to develop over there. We'll see what happens. Do you think he has a shot back at the NBA? To be honest, I don't think so. Because he had already a shot in the G League. I think it was tough for him to keep up with his foot speed, but he could be a dominant player in Asia. Yeah. Do you think he'd even be a, like, you mean like maybe in Korea? Yeah, in the KBL, for sure. For sure he'd be really good. Yeah. Moving on, Andrew. Number five, and like I said, there's going to be some players that we leave out here that are half or like that, you know what I mean? Let us know who we left out. Yeah, I don't have a breakdown on Kago Kamenaga. Shout out to him, though. I watched him in FIBA. Number five, Andrew. We've got Roy Yuen from Stanford, who is a compside major and a walk-on. And recently, he got posted on SportsCenter because Stanford was up and he did a hezzy pull from deep and then said he got ice in his veins. All right, so this is interesting. Let's be honest, he's not going to the league because he's a walk-on at Stanford. Even though he was nasty in high school, he's very undersized. Yeah, he's really good. Six-one, he's six-one. He can shoot. He's got some moves. He has a YouTube channel. If you want to check it out, he's playing like 1v1s with people. Compound plays, I would say like Peyton Prichard with less driving. So he's not going to make the NBA, but he could play pro. He can definitely play pro in Asia. In Asia, for sure. Andrew, let's just take a look at some of the comments because that sort of goes back to our original article that we're talking about. Like, why do so many people doubt these players? Did you know that, all right, so Asian-Americans make up 7% of America. They make up 2% of NCAA Division I athletes. And in basketball and football, it's less than half a percent. We're talking about less than half of a percent is Asian. Somebody said Jackie Chan out here hooping. Man, Stanford needs to give me a jersey if they're letting him hoop, but he probably has a 3.5 GPA, so I'm going to just shut up. Andrew, actually, he has a 3.9 GPA and he's a comp side major. And he's an intern at a top level. He's going to be, dude, if he decides to go into Silicon Valley, man, all the bros are going to love him there. I want to say he interns at ChatGPT, to be honest. Somebody said getting balled on by the water boy is wild. He's got rice in his veins. Man, rice gum is really out here getting buckets. Now he's got COVID in his veins. One ton broth is flowing smoothly. Actually, this is Zoom CEOs, Eric U.N.'s kids. All of you guys are going to be using WebEx now. That was a deep cut Silicon Valley joke. Andrew, why do you think so many people doubt these players? Because even guys in the NBA right now that are half or a quarter, whether we're talking about Jalen Green, Jalen Williams, Johnny Juzang, obviously, Uten Watanabe's in the NBA, Rui Hachimura. They're from Japan. There are so many articles about people doubting them because whether they're the half Asian side, people think that makes them weak or not good or not competitive or they came out of the Asia system. So people are questioning the quality of the basketball training in Asia. Everybody is like, there's so many articles about every part Asian player or full Asian player that's like, they beat the odds. Nobody believed in them. I'll say this, man, and this is going to happen for years to come until there's so many Asian or part Asian players that it's not even something you need to talk about anymore. But right now, it is still rare. So everybody's getting talked about. Well, if they're another race and they're this good, they're not getting this much coverage because they're just not going to make it and no one's going to think about them. But these guys, since they are on the cusp, and it is true that there's a lot of eyes on Asians in these leagues. Like, how many more Asians are going to, we had Jeremy Lin, we had Yao Ming, we had some successful Asian players, but like, are we going to get more? But it's like, because all the eyeballs are on them, that's why it feels like there's a lot of Asian guys who are on the cusp of the league, just because we're talking about them all. Right, right. But you're saying there's so many guys that are on the cusp of other ethnicities, but nobody's even talking. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, if they were black, they're just going to play overseas. Or even white, they'd be like, yeah, that's what happened to white players. They're good in college and they end up on the cusp in the league. Yeah, but I think it's just because Asians are now breaking through into the whole like, hey, Asians can play basketball. Right, they're in the discussion. Yeah, they're in the discussion. They can, like, don't overlook them. They're not all going to be Michael Jordan, but like, and they're not all going to be Jeremy Lin, but like, some of them are going to be solid. For sure, for sure. I mean, there's a lot of girls playing D1 basketball right now that are having really good stats. But obviously, the truth is, very few of them ultimately go to the WNA. I mean, I just want to shout out to the Princeton female team. They got three Asian American girls, one half and then two full Asians. And they're playing minutes too, right? Yeah, no, some of them are like the starters. Shout out to Ashley Che, right? Ashley Che, Kaitlin Chen, Sky Belker. So that's, I mean, shout out to Princeton for, I guess, taking all that Asian, I guess the Asian players want to play at Princeton. I guess as a final takeaway, Andrew, should Asian parents push their kids in a basketball or should they put them in a small ball of sports such as tennis and golf, swimming, you know, things that quote unquote, like Asians have had more conventional success? I mean, what's your goal, man? What's your goal as a parent, man? If they can play basketball at Princeton and if that's your goal and they can do it, they haven't played basketball. Go pro overseas. Or I mean, get the Princeton education. Holy crap, that can't be bad for their life. Well, now you got the NIL deals, you can make money in college. No, I'm just saying even just the Princeton degree though, that can't be bad for your life. Yeah, I mean, if you're good, it can help you get into college. Yeah, and it's crazy because like, they're not on full scholarship because Ivy Leagues don't give full sports scholarships. So some of them are still somehow paying for school partially. Yeah, that's true. I think they figure out a way to help them out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, they're paying for like a third or fourth of it. Anyway, guys, let us know what you think of Zach Edie, Xavier and Lee. Let us know what you think about all the Asians, you know, potentially going to the NBA. I get it. I'm not saying there's not a ton of other Asians being successful at other sports. We happen to follow basketball very closely. That's what I personally like, just feel very passionate about. And yeah, I know it's a height issue. I know it's a young coaching issue. Sometimes the parents, you know, Asian parents, they want to push their kids into academics more than sports. Like, and you only have 24 hours a day. And I'll tell you, a lot of guys that we didn't even mention, I know some other Asian guys who are starting their first college, their D1 college careers, you know, but we just, it's because they're just starting. So, you know, we can't put them in the same category as Zach Edie. But I'm just saying there's a lot of Asian Hoopers. Now, is basketball the best sport? I mean, there's a lot of great Asian soccer players right now. Right, they're doing really well. Yeah, maybe all Asians should play soccer. I don't know, you tell me, man. Let me know in the comments down below. Guys, check out SmallLah Sauce. Happy holidays, and until next time, we out. Peace.