Chinese star vows to return stronger after double blow of being released by Nets after ACL injury
Even after his fledgling NBA career was abruptly suspended in the cruelest way, China’s injured basketball star Cui Yongxi has refused to give up pushing for a return to the top league after being waived by the Brooklyn Nets.
On Dec 15, just four days after he sustained the injury in a G-League game representing Brooklyn’s Long Island affiliate, Cui learned he had been cut by the Nets franchise to make room for new signings as part of a deal with the Golden State Warriors.
The cut came just over two months after he joined the Nets, owned by Joe Tsai, chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, on a two-way contract.
The 21-year-old forward remains upbeat, vowing to pick up right where he left off, once he has fully recovered from the knee injury.
“I have to take a long break from the court but once I come back stronger from the injury, I will not stop pursuing my NBA dream until the last bit of my energy burns out,” Cui wrote in a post on social media on Dec 16.
Cui tore the ligament in his left knee when he landed after going for a rebound in the second quarter of Long Island’s G-League game against the Maine Celtics on Dec 11.
On Dec 13, the Nets confirmed a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and announced Cui would miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season. This capped his rookie year at five NBA appearances — with three points and two rebounds in 10 minutes of action — and six games in the G-League.
The injury — right after Cui put on his best performance since arriving in the US, scoring 14 points to go with four rebounds and three steals in 24 minutes off the bench against the College Park Skyhawks on Dec 9 — dampened Chinese fans’ budding hopes of witnessing his rise in the G-League.
“Sometimes, it’s inevitable (to get injured) in professional sports. It’s part of the job. I just have to face up to it with a positive mindset,” Cui said in a video on social media on Dec 14.
In the trade with the Warriors, the Nets sent German guard Dennis Schroder to the Bay Area, and acquired guard Reece Beekman, also a two-way player, from Golden State to make the deal work.
NBA rules limit teams to three players on two-way contracts and Cui was released to add Beekman to a Nets roster already including two-way players Jaylen Martin and Tyrese Martin.
The Nets promised to arrange ACL repair surgery for Cui within the week, conducted by the best available medical professionals, and the franchise expects a “full recovery”, as stated in a previous release.
Similar injuries have seen a glittering cast of NBA stars — the latest being Dallas Mavericks’ shooter Klay Thompson — sidelined for lengthy periods and struggle to return to their peak form.
However, Cui’s Chinese agent Li Qun said a disciplined and ambitious young talent, as healthy as his client was before the injury, can come back stronger.
“A player of Cui’s age has a very high chance of recovering his full strength should the surgery and following rehabs go as well as planned,” Li, a former Chinese national team guard, said in a social media post on Dec 14.
After two seasons with the Guangzhou Loong Lions in the CBA, Cui pursued his NBA dream last summer but did not get selected in the 2024 NBA Draft.
A busy offseason battling in the physically intense Summer League helped the CBA’s 2022-23 Rookie of the Year grow stronger and sharper, eventually earning him the two-way opportunity with the Nets.
As part of the NBA’s new partnership with resort operator Sands China, announced by the league on Dec 6, the Nets will play two preseason games against the Phoenix Suns in Macao next October.
Unfortunately, any excitement that Chinese fans had to root for one of their own in an NBA game on home soil, has now evaporated.
