China may have exited the FIBA World Cup, but the viral on-court moments that their team was involved in are still doing the rounds on social media. The attention once again shifted to a teenage Chinese player, as Team USA’s Paige Bueckers reflected on the friendly banter that she exchanged with her during their opening game.
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During last Friday’s opening game, cameras caught Paige Bueckers making a gesture towards China’s teen sensation Zhang Ziyu in what could be made out as a reference to her height. Ziyu bent down to engage with Bueckers. The moment quickly went viral due to the obvious height differences, with Ziyu standing at a record 7’3 as compared to Bueckers’ 6’0. Even FIBA joined in the banter, posting, “Paige, spill the conversation pls.” And now it seems Bueckers has finally spilled the beans.
“Just banter. Friendly banter. I was trying to figure out how much English she knows,” Bueckers said per a B/R W Sports Instagram post. “So if I was going to talk trash, how much she’d understand. I did tell her I was going to block her shot, and she just looked at me in disbelief. I don’t know if she didn’t understand what I was saying or if she just couldn’t believe that I’d say that to her. Just all fun and games for me.”
With an official FIBA measurement of 223 cm, Ziyu’s frame surpasses that of even Shaquille O’Neal. In a sport where height is everything, her towering presence offers interior dominance rarely seen on the hardwood.
And while we can’t say anything for sure as far as the trash talk is concerned, Zhang Ziyu almost matched Bueckers for the buckets.
Stepping onto the Women’s World Cup stage for the first time, Paige Bueckers looked completely at home, delivering 14 points in an assured tournament debut. Zhang Ziyu also registered 13 points on the night, along with two blocks and six rebounds. But Ziyu’s dominant performance could not prevent a blowout USA victory, as Rhyne Howard, Caitlin Clark, and Paige Bueckers led them to a 94-61 win.
Ziyu first burst onto the international scene as part of the Chinese team at the FIBA U18 Women’s Asia Cup, where she was named the MVP. At seven feet three inches, Ziyu has been the focal point of fans’ curiosity in this tournament. She often appears overpowering as she towers over her opponents. And Paige Bueckers was not the only US player Ziyu left an impression on in the opening game.
“I’ve never played against a woman of that size, and she obviously presented some challenges for us. I think she’s a wonderful player, and you see how young she is,” Caitlin Clark said, per FIBA.
“You can tell she’s still growing and learning – how to play and how to leverage her advantage, which is her size. There’s not much you can do to stop her when she gets it really close to the basket. I thought she was really efficient from the free-throw line as well.”
In every game she has featured for China, even if briefly, Ziyu has been the center of attention for the opposing players. In China’s win against Italy, Ziyu only played for eight minutes, but still made quite an impact on an opposing player.
“For sure it’s weird because it’s something not usual, I think it’s also challenging because you have to defend a kind of player which you cannot play against every day and for me it’s challenging because we have to find different ways to stop her,” Italy centre Olbis Andre said.
“I think we did good in some part of the games, we did worse in other parts of the game, but I think that we will learn from this.”
The basketball community remains eager for Ziyu’s development. At 19, the best years of her career are still ahead of her. Only time will tell if she can use her height and size to her advantage.