Haixia Zheng encourages others to follow their dreams

Photo of Haixia Zheng- WNBA.com

Athletes with an Asian background have shaped the world of sports in various different ways. Chinese female basketball player Haixia Zheng is one of those people. Born on March 7, 1967 in Tuocheng, Shanqui County, Henan Province, China, no one had expected her to grow to become one of the best Asian female athletes the world has ever seen.


Although Zheng was just an ordinary child, she came to be six feet tall at the age of 12. She also started to play basketball at that time, discovering that she liked the sport and had the skills to compete due to her extraordinary size. She was selected by the Wuhan Army club at the age of 13, and in 1983 (age 16), she was playing for the national team. Zheng grew to be six feet eight inches, and she was playing well in China.

In 1997, she entered the WNBA joining the Los Angeles Sparks. She played all 34 games in the WNBA in her first year, averaging 9.3 ppg and 4.4 rpg. She only played six games the next season and that was the end of her career. While her stats were average, she was facing better athletes in the WNBA compared to China. While playing for the national team in China, Zheng averaged an astounding 26 ppg and 13 rpg with an 83% field-goal percentage. The differences of scoring and rebound production is so great, people can immediately see the big changes.

Zheng didn’t play as well as she did in China due to several reasons. First, she was never quick on her feet, couldn’t jump well, and didn’t have good hands. She wasn’t fluent with English, and that may be a reason of lack of communication with her coaches and teammates. Zheng is a great athlete, it’s just that she wasn’t used to the American style of play. Her role change also affected how she played. In China she was always the go-to player, but here she was only a small part of the team. Through her translator Wendy Chang, Zheng said "The way I played in China was very different from the way they want me to play here," in a Los Angeles Times article by Earl Gustkey. "I was the center of the action, but here I must not only play in the paint. I have to be more mobile.“

Even though she had trouble playing in the WNBA, she managed to win two awards, the 1997 WNBA Sportsmanship Award and the WNBA’s first Bud Light Shooting Champion for being the most accurate shooter in the league, shooting .618 from the field. Zheng always had a high field-goal percentage; maybe this is because of the seven hours of practices. Or it may be her height which allows her to get close to the basket abd take easy shots. This shows that race might not be a factor; it’s actually the work ethic that makes some athlete better than others.

"I need to be much better at understanding team concepts. I hope my coaches and teammates will continue to help me change my habits, to meet the requirements of my new team." Said Zheng in a Los Angeles Times article by Earl Gutskey. She seemed to be a hard-working athlete, which means she did want to help her team win. This shows that sometimes Asian athletes often don’t get the chance to prove that they have the ability to compete and play well.

She came before notable Chinese athletes such as Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian, and now Jeremy Lin. She showed others that it’s possible for an Asian to compete in an American league. She influenced others because she rose over everyone from China and became the first to come to American professional basketball.

To encourage others to pursue their dreams, "Never stop pursuing your dreams. There is not a finish line in your career or the success you can get from it. It's just like studying, if you want to be successful, you should never stop making efforts to learn more." Zheng said in her WNBA profile page.