Yang Hansen Introductory Press Conference | June 27, 2025 | Portland Trail Blazers

Yang Hansen Introductory Press Conference | June 27, 2025 | Portland Trail Blazers

start with it welcome everybody thank you for coming we’re here to introduce our newest draft pick Yong Hansen um we’d like to welcome his family both mama and papa are here as well as um some friends so thank you for coming and welcome to the Trailblazers um we’ll be here to answer all your questions and of course introduce you to Hansen i’m going to pass it to Chanty to uh give some remarks yeah um obviously really excited about how it turned out um Hansen is a good young player very very talented uh very young uh like most of the guys that get drafted but we’re really excited about him we really are i mean he can do a lot of amazing things out there um I’m sure we’ll talk more about his game but what I love one of the things I love the most is just kind of how he plays the game his IQ is really really high he plays the game the right way he’s a really good teammate um playing for his others to make other guys better um his competitive fire you know really competes out there he loved that about him you can just tell that he’s been taught the right way so a lot of things as a coach um that I have to teach with young guys I don’t have to teach this kid he’s been taught the right way um so I’m really excited about him um and uh it’s it’s going to be a lot of fun to have him uh firstly thank you for everyone coming here today and then um he feels so excited to come here be one of the blers and also coach Chen is like operation making him feel good thank you Chanse and this is next time try to kick him out and he can be here by himself yeah opb Winston i I don’t have I need to translate that oh sorry uh I think that a baby joker or like compared with ya that’s a big honor for him so but I try I just try to learn from everyone every good players and try to improve himself every day yeah during the draft you were up in the stands you weren’t down on the floor did did you have expectation of going as high as you did and were you surprised and were you at all surprised that the Blazers picked you given that they had spent so much time working on you dating back to 2023 um in the draft day he he thought he might get after 20s so he just like I just be chill like sitting there suddenly like they Adam call his name I said oh I call him my name and then and but it’s like extremely feel have like feel good and he he tried to like just follow the pace and I were happy to be one of the leaders i’m interested as in you as a person uh what are some of your interests and what do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t playing basketball uh sometimes uh I sleep all time sleep and uh I like play py PS5 and and uh I like eat Maybe I I want high coach i might just draw some crazy offense for the players let’s see if they can do it uh first off uh Niha Hansen uh when did becoming a professional basketball player seem like a real a realistic thing for you when did you become when did the professional side become possible for you sure you mean become a pro or just come to NBA when did you feel like being a professional our junior team uh he talk me you can play in CB uh so I every day work out uh after that time like he just try to treasure every minutes every second he can get so just like play on my play his own ball yeah it has been about 18 years since a Chinese born player was drafted first round in the NBA so what pride does that give you from everybody back home to know that you’re one of the ones uh firstly being being like the first round get picked get select like he just feel so proud of that and then I think all the time I feel proud too and also like for him he just try to like a good chance it’s a good first step for him and also he can yeah you treasure this time to improve himself and to bring more stuff back to the China try to help the China basketball too Sean reported yesterday that the Blazers had a secret sa Slack channel devoted to you for like two years how does it feel knowing that this organization has So all in on you for so long i mean like two years ago Mike and Sergey come to China to see him and then he saw them on the on the stands so and also but now the player pick him is a really big honor for him and he feel excited about it so I just he just say want to say thank you to everyone in this facility also everyone here yeah uh Hansen what have you heard about Portland as a city and how you think you might uh fit in here you know as far as going getting to know the city and the fans and the people you like the rainy wider firstly he likes he really like this city and then uh he he he’s like he can get along with anyone like easily he’s a kind person so and also he knows like the rainy weather help him to sleep more so we’re clearly interviewing Hansen through a translator how do you anticipate tackling the challenge of coaching him through a translator i imagine you might have done some of that during the workout here how’d that go and how do you do you have a plan in place for how that’s going to work moving forward yeah um obviously it’s a little unique you know having to kind of coach through the translator but I anticipate that that wouldn’t that won’t happen for too long um he’s really determined to understand the language be able to speak the language obviously you can see him trying and doing a really good job already trying to answer the questions but um basketball language is kind of universal you know um it will probably sound really fast to him as it’s coming at him but um we’ll be spending a lot of time on it you know um there’ll be some adjustments that you have to make naturally you know and film sessions and huddles and things of that nature but um I’m excited for it you know I really am excited about the challenge but it will be it’ll be a little unique for sure you learn some names in his language well I’ll try i’ll do whatever I can do you know um I already know Nihow i already know that i’ve been to China several times but um yeah we of course you know I try to meet him um his way too we got a couple of guys that speak French on the team um every time I see him in the morning I’m saying bonjour so like I’m Yeah we’ll have a lot of fun with it you know we’ll definitely have a lot of fun with it and as we don’t all know him that well yet but he loves to have a lot of fun and uh he’s always smiling and stuff so it it’s going to be cool okay uh this is a question for Hansen again firstly he said he just I’m a he’s a rookie so he’ll be a team players with the team OG to help them together and then also he know dual breeze a long time like two two years ago he’s like he they always talk to each other and share the experience and then about the player who could play against he might he just say he try to learn from every big like try to work on that like learn from everything from them yeah a couple more here hansen you played in summer league last year with a Chinese national team you got more experience with against soon to be NBA level talent what what are the things that you think that you’re going to have to grow your game in to go from the CBA to the NBA to be effective i need I need a uh uh a workout uh so I need a more fast more strong uh I He tried to be more physical in the paint like try to grab a rebound like try to get post points every time like finish that this one’s This one’s for coach um I know you guys said that you’ve been scouting him for like the past two years i’m curious who stumbled upon him was it you coach um was it you Joe so I’m curious who exactly like stumbled upon the tape and then brought it to the table like this is the guy we we need to keep on looking forward to when it’s his time yeah it definitely wasn’t me i’ve been a little busy uh coaching the games but Sergy and Mike uh who you know are two of the best in the world you know at going and finding some of these young talented players um they’re the ones that really you know kind of found him uh you know Mike is has been all over the world you know finding gyms like him um so that’s when it got kind of brought to my attention obviously it got brought to Joe’s attention a lot before me um but my first actually watching him play as we scrimmaged against him uh last year before the summer league in Vegas and um obviously we had our eyes on him and you know he was making plays out there that I was really impressed with him but uh yeah that that’s the real experts found him not me bro uh Chanty how do you think that him and uh Donovan uh compliment each other and do you envision them possibly even playing together at all no I don’t I don’t really envision them playing together to be honest with you but who knows both of these guys are very young they they they’re going to get so much better but I do think that their games complement one another um very nicely very nicely and uh in fact Donovan was at the workout when he worked out and was very impressed kind of watching his skill set and watching him play out there so um he’s really excited uh to have him no Twin Towers coach that’s disappointing um my question for you is what are your realistic expectations for him his rookie year is he going to maybe get into the rotation or is he going to spend some time to remix or is it just too early to tell obviously it’s way too early for that i mean you you could see all the centers that we have on our team you know um so it’s it’s too early to tell on that for me i just see him just continuing to get better and better and better and learn our game learn our system offensively and defensively learning the language you know it’s just so much development that needs to happen um but you know I will feel very comfortable putting him in the game right now he’s that good you know so to me this is not like a project type of situation this guy’s ready to go you know um but he’s in you know a crowded room you know DA DC and Rob Hansen Wob so um this will be an incredible educational year for him and uh when he does get a chance to play I think everybody will be really impressed hey man welcome to Portland i was curious how you pronounce your name and second of all was there a moment when you fell in love with basketball and was there a player that you’ve admired or that you’ve looked up to or modeled your game after growing up uh my name is Yan Hansen young Hansen uh my maybe 30 years old uh 13 13 sorry 13 years old um I he played the pro I think the province game in China represent like Shandong province I think so yeah he don’t want before that he don’t he don’t want to run that much it’s too much fatigue so he just sometime hate basketball sometimes in that tournament he killing everyone else and they keep winning the winning spirit making you feel good and after that he develop all the fun all the interest in the basketball i think that’s it yeah take a picture he can go he can go in the middle

Yang Hansen meets the media in Portland for the first time.

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