The Los Angeles Lakers have officially signed China's hottest basketball star of the moment, Yi Jianlian. The forward/center has already been announced to join the Lakers team almost a week ago by the team's General Manager Mitch Kupchak.
According to an announcement in twitter by Marc Stein of ESPN, the newest member of the LA Lakers has been able to seal the deal with a cap number of $8 million, $6.8 million of which are to be earned and given through bonuses.
This is Jianlian's second chance at NBA after being sixth pick overall at the 2007 NBA Draft by Milwaukee Bucks. He also played for three more NBA teams during his short stint as an NBA Player. The NBA teams he played for are New Jersey Nets, Washington Wizards and Dallas Mavericks. Unfortunately, he only averaged 7.9 points with 40.9 shooting percentage. There are only five other Chinese-born basketball players who were able to play in the most respected basketball league in the whole world.
After his five seasons in the NBA, the Chinese Basketball Player developed his strengths and power in the court in his home country.
He spent the last four seasons with Guangdong Southern Tigers where he averaged 23 points per season. His efforts are being paid off, he has already achieved eight All-Star, four championships with two domestic MVPs and two finals MVPs since his start in the basketball scene at the age of 15.
He also led the Chinese Basketball Team in three FIBA Championships, two of which he was declared as the Most Valuable Player.
It is in the recently concluded Rio Olympics 2016 where he showed the whole world how much experience he already gained and how much he is a NBA Player material. In the five games that China played in the Olympics, the six-foot-eleven averaged 20.4 points.
