China's center Zhou Qi dunks against the Milwaukee Bucks in an NBA Summer League game on Wednesday at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada. China lost the match 84-67 while Zhou scored 14 points. Photo: VCG

Chinese center Zhou Qi has reaffirmed his desire to play at a high level despite uncertainty about his basketball activity next season.

Back from their international duty including the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers and the FIBA Asia Cup, the Chinese men's basketball team are serving out a mandatory seven-day quarantine in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu.

Zhou, who played with the South East Melbourne Phoenix in the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) last season, remains uncertain about where he will play next season.

Although the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, where Zhou played five seasons before heading to Australia, have already pre-registered him for the new season's Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league, Zhou still has the option of playing overseas.

"If I have a chance, I will go for playing in a higher-level league," Zhou told reporters in a virtual interview on Monday.

"I will comprehensively consider my next destination."

Reflecting on his experience of playing in the Australian league, Zhou is deeply impressed by the quality of training.

"We trained less than two hours every day and finished it around 1:30 pm, so we were available in the afternoon and evening to embrace our training the next day in a positive mindset," he recalled.

"I felt intense competition there," he admitted. "Whether veterans or rookies, everyone was involved in open and high-level contention, which benefited our shape in playing matches later on."

"After one year of playing in Australia, I'm aware of my improvement in competitiveness and game reading. I hope to strive for a bigger stage."

With a win-loss record of 6-2, China sits second in the six-team Group F in the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers, as the top three teams within the group will qualify for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup along with the Philippines and Japan, hosts of the global basketball showpiece.

Zhou averaged 17.6 points and 10.4 rebounds in seven outings in the World Cup qualifiers.

Talking about his role in the national team, Zhou underlined the importance of team basketball.

"Everyone shoulders his own responsibility. I just do everything that I can do. We need to improve our results as a group," he commented.

"Since I came to the national team, I have been in both good and bad times. I need to keep my mentality and concentrate on what I'm doing," Zhou said.

Xinhua