China’s Top Prospect To Join Ignite

China’s top prospect, Fanbo Zeng, has opted to join the G League’s Ignite team, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports.

Zeng, an 18-year-old 6’10” forward, originally committed to national championship runner-up Gonzaga. He’ll now pursue his NBA dream in the Ignite program, which was designed for top prospects that didn’t want to go the one-and-done route in college.

Zeng, who will be eligible for the 2022 draft, is no stranger to the U.S. He played for Windermere (Fla.) Prep from 2018-20 after moving from China the previous year and was ranked as a four-star prospect.

He was recruited to the Zags by assistant coach Tommy Lloyd, who left Gonzaga to become Arizona’s head coach.

Zeng is the second highly-regarded forward to commit to the Ignite for next season. Five-star recruit Michael Foster Jr. signed with the Ignite on Friday.

The inaugural Ignite featured Jonathan Kuminga and Jalen Green, two of the top five prospects in this year’s NBA draft. However, The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie said in Charania’s story that Zeng is more of a “long-term project” than a surefire first-rounder next year.

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