{"id":815767,"date":"2026-07-22T04:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T04:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815767\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T04:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T04:06:08","slug":"blazers-yang-hansen-embraces-pressure-from-home-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815767\/","title":{"rendered":"Blazers’ Yang Hansen Embraces Pressure From Home Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yang Hansen<\/a> feels pressure from his home country to make a greater impact in the NBA during his second season but the Trail Blazers center doesn\u2019t feel that\u2019s a bad thing.<\/p>\n

Yang told Rose Garden Report\u2019s Sean Highkin<\/a> during a wide-ranging interview that his biggest critics come from China.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican fans are more encouraging,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody I meet tells me, \u2018Welcome to Portland\u2019 and \u2018Good luck with the season.\u2019 In China, because everybody wants me to play well, they want to push me more. There\u2019s more pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yang proved to be a work in progress after being selected with the No. 16 overall pick last year. He appeared in 43 games (one start) but only averaged 7.0 minutes in those outings. He posted averages of 2.2 points and 1.5 rebounds while shooting 31 percent from the field during those limited appearances.<\/p>\n

According to Highkin, Yang took a lot of flak from his countrymen on social media. Some called him lazy and fat, and viewed it as a failure that he played more last year in the G League than in the NBA. There were comments that he was letting down his family and his country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to read it,\u201d Yang said. \u201cEverybody [in China] is tough on me because they want me to play better. I\u2019m their hope. I look at it in a calmer and less negative way. The reason people take time to write comments is because they want me to be better on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yang is eager to prove his critics wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s good,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s pressure for me, but everybody has pressure. It\u2019s not bad to have pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from Highkin\u2019s interview with Yang:<\/p>\n

Yang showed growth during four Summer League games, posting averages of 13.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.5 blocks in 24.0 minutes. He was still turnover-prone, however (4.2). Yang has dropped weight and gotten into better shape. \u201cI feel much better,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m faster. My pick-and-roll defense and rebounding I think are much better. Basketball is a contact game. My body is stronger.\u201d
\nHe has a good feeling about new head coach Micah Nori. \u201cHe\u2019s a good coach,\u201d he said. \u201cHe wants to play a team game. He teaches us to focus on the details during [practices]. I\u2019m excited to play for him in a game.\u201d
\nHe\u2019s looking forward to playing with Damian Lillard<\/a>, who was recovering from an Achilles tendon tear last season. \u201cIt will be easy,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s a very good shooter, so I just need to set good screens for him.\u201d
\nHe\u2019s hoping to stay with the NBA club full-time this season after bouncing back and forth between the Blazers and G League Remix. \u201cGoing from the G League to the Blazers back and forth, sometimes it\u2019s a long flight and I have to go\u00a0 to the airport early,\u201d Yang said. \u201cThat was tough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yang Hansen feels pressure from his home country to make a greater impact in the NBA during his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,7222,356278,85,5661],"class_list":["post-815767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-damian-lillard","tag-micah-nori","tag-sports","tag-yang-hansen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}