Zhou Qi is a major global sporting drawcard but most Australians have never heard of him.
The Chinese basketballer plays for South East Melbourne Phoenix, one of 10 professional basketball teams from Australia and New Zealand playing in the NBL.
He trains in obscurity at the State Basketball Centre in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. But online, it's a very different story.
A post announcing his recruitment in September was posted on multiple Chinese social media platforms.
One reached more than 480 million people — 15.5 million of whom engaged with it.
Another post reached 15 million and another reached six million.
"The numbers don't feel real," marvels Phoenix brand and media head Daniel Hoy.
'One of the best'
At 216 centimetres – 7'1" – Zhou is easily the tallest player in the Phoenix line-up.
A natural defensive player, the 26-year-old started his professional career playing with his hometown team, the Xinjiang Flying Tigers.
He was named the best defensive player in China's professional league three times and represented his country at the Rio Olympics.
His global profile took off when he joined the Houston Rockets in America's NBA in 2017 and 2018.
He then returned to play in China after being cut by the Rockets. However, there was a social media backlash after the dying minutes of a tight 2019 FIBA World Cup game between China and Poland when Zhou missed what some fans thought were easy chances.
A reported contract dispute at home and a publicised desire to work his way back to the big league in the US led him to Australia and a new NBL franchise based in Melbourne's outer suburban Wantirna South.
It's a long way from the NBA. But that hasn't stopped millions of fans following him, online at least.
Translator WeiHao Hou helps Mandarin speaker Zhou off the court (he doesn't need a translator when playing) and his media business is also contracted by South East Melbourne Phoenix to run its Chinese social platforms.
His business has built the club's Chinese social media engagement from the ground up to levels much higher than in Australia.
For example, the team's Douyin – TikTok – account has 255,000 followers and its Facebook page has 14,000.
Mr Hou isn't surprised by the numbers.
"[Qi is] one of the best – if not the best – basketball players in China," he said.
The phenomenon is not just limited to Melbourne — the Brisbane Bullets have also recruited a Chinese player.
At 225cm – 7'4" – Chuanxing Liu, known as "Big Liu", is the tallest player the NBL has ever seen.
More than two million people live-streamed a Bullets and Phoenix match in January.
It made it one of the most viewed NBL games ever — free-to-air views on SBS of the 2019/20 season got about the same views overall, while a run-of-the-mill match now would get more than 100,000 live views across platforms.
Purposeful strategy
An NBL strategy has seen a number of players from Asian countries join the league, including India's Princepal Singh, who signed with the New Zealand Breakers, and Filipino Kai Sotto, from the Adelaide 39ers.
NBL commissioner Jeremy Loeliger said the league changed the rules to make it easier for teams to sign on players from countries in Asia.
"We very purposefully introduced an amendment to the salary and contracting rules allowing each team to contract one player from Asia that would be excluded from its salary cap calculations," he said.
"We're conscious of the quality of talent coming out of the region, the popularity of the game in various markets throughout Asia, but also the fact that the best players command significant salaries.
Mr Loeliger said the league started streaming games in China in 2016 and had facilitated a number of games between Australian and Chinese teams.
He hoped more players from Asia would consider playing professional basketball in Australia.
"You can't deny how important and significance the Zhou Qi and Chuanxing Liu signings have been, as it has shown other Chinese players that the NBL is a legitimate option for them," Loeliger said.
"There's no doubt the NBL is a genuine stepping stone to the NBA and is a highly attractive league for any player who is wanting to make that transition."
Will he stay?
Despite the NBA hype, Zhou said he enjoyed working and living in Melbourne.
His few months in Australia haven't been without controversy. In December, Melbourne United's courtside announcer was suspended for two games after making an "inappropriate" comment about Qi during the game.
Qi declined to comment on this incident, but spoke highly of his NBL experience so far.
"I just want to focus here," he said through a translator.
"Obviously I've thought about [going to the NBA].
"But at the moment I feel pretty comfortable here in Australia."
"I wasn't expecting such welcoming teammates — in the US I found everyone was playing individually, but here everyone's supporting each other no matter what."
While his teammates speak of Zhou's easygoing nature and cheeky sense of humour, the love from the sidelines is perhaps just as important.
"The crowd was incredible and it's something that I wasn't expecting coming over here," he said.
Bringing cultures together
Ten minutes' drive from the State Basketball Centre, Patrick Yu runs a weekly basketball competition.
The Australasian Basketball Association started as a casual competition between four Chinese churches a decade ago.
Now the competition has 53 teams in six divisions, with more than 500 participants who are mostly from Asian backgrounds.
Mr Yu said he was excited to have a famous basketball player on their doorstep.
"Our original plan was to have Zhou Qi come out to our stadium and sign some autographs, but unfortunately due to COVID we weren't able to get that happening.
"What we've heard is they're very keen on getting close with the community — he's got really good people behind him telling him to get involved."
While it hasn't changed the number of people interested in his league, Mr Yu said it has changed how Chinese Australian fans have engaged with the local basketball culture.
"Now that Zhou is in the Phoenix team, there's a lot bigger Asian presence at the games, and more people are starting to understand the basketball culture in Australia," he said.
Zhou's move to Australia fits into Mr Yu's larger goal to run an inclusive community basketball league in Melbourne's east.
"Basketball is a common language for everyone — it brings people together."
