The Shaolin Temple in Henan province, China, confirmed on Tuesday that San Antonio Spurs player Victor Wembanyama was staying at the site for a ten-day retreat after photos of the NBA star wearing dressed as a monk and sporting a shaved head began circulating on Chinese social media.
The Chinese state media outlets China Daily and Global Times enthusiastically confirmed Wembanyama’s extended stay in the country after a more traditional tour of Beijing and the Great Wall. The Global Times shared reported that Wembanyama had indefinitely extended his stay in China and appeared genuinely interested in a spiritual experience at the Shaolin Temple.
The Shaolin Temple is widely considered one of the most important sites in Zen Buddhism and the birthplace of the martial art of kung fu. Chinese media outlets noted that the rules governing the ordination of monks are strict and prohibit foreigners from joining the monastic order, so Wembanyama, a Frenchman, is highly unlikely to fully become a monk.
The player’s travels through China have nonetheless caused a sensation of the Chinese regime-controlled social media site Weibo and received promotion on state media as the latest in a string of friendly visits by NBA stars to the genocidal communist country, promoting interest in tourism in China. Prior to Wembanyama’s travels this month, Chinese regime propaganda arms enthusiastically promoted visits by active NBA stars such as LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Basketball player Victor Wembanyama top poses with France’s Iman Ndiaye Rear, 4th R after the Pool 3 match between France and Belgium at the Women’s Volleyball Nations League VNL 2025 at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China, June 6, 2025. (Han Yan/Xinhua via Getty Images)
The Global Times has extensively praised retired NBA player Stephon Marbury for moving to China and lending himself to government efforts, particularly in anticipation of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
China is a massive profit center in for the NBA and is home to millions of enthusiastic fans, occasionally causing political problems for the league when players use their right to freedom of expression, protected in America but not in China. Players such as former Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter Freedom, have met an abrupt end in the league after condemning China for its ongoing genocide of Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic Turkic peoples, as well as other players’ lucrative relationships with Chinese brands.
The Times, which often acts as a mouthpiece for the Chinese government, published a matter-of-fact assessment of Wembanyama’s voyages in China on Monday, confirming that he had “shaved his head and would begin a 10-day seclusion practice at China’s Shaolin Temple.” China Daily similarly relayed that local media in Henan province had confirmed the news, which initially began spreading through images of the player, apparently in China, spreading on Weibo.
“His unexpected detour to the temple, following visits to Beijing’s Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall, became a trending topic on Chinese social media,” China Daily noted.
Shortly before the news of his appearance at the Shaolin Temple, Wembanyama posted videos online of other adventures in China, such as a stop at the Great Wall and tour of Beijing.
As Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported, the videos and rumors of his time studying Buddhism have caused a sensation on Weibo and other platforms where Chinese basketball fans interact.
“Unsurprisingly, Airbender comparisons followed, while given the kung fu connection,” the newspaper observed, “others raised the prospect of a remake of Game of Death, the Bruce Lee film that starred former Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.”
The Chinese Communist Party actively encourages the NBA to cater to Chinese fans, so long as the players involved do not object to the regime’s long list of human rights atrocities against its people. In addition to the Uyghur genocide, China violently persecutes Christians, members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, and political dissidents, often “disappearing” people with opinions deemed problematic into its Kafkaesque “justice” system. Significant evidence indicates that China is also engaged in trafficking the organs of its political prisoners and executing political prisoners by extracting their organs for profit.
The NBA players who regularly visit China to promote their brand and their team under nearly no circumstances address this reality. During a recent trip to China in 2023, for example, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks posted photos with his friends and family playing with Chinese dragons and meeting friendly fans. Antetokounmpo was the first high-profile player in the league to return to China since the onset of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
The Global Times commended Antetokounmpo for being in a position to “inspire and motivate” Chinese fans. The propaganda outlet celebrated the “significant commercial opportunities” that allegedly exist in China for NBA players who disregard the moral challenges of engaging with the Communist Party.
Antetokounmpo suggested during a press event in February that China could host the next NBA All-Star Game, a proposal met with outrage.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has repeatedly defended the league’s relationship with China.
“We think exporting NBA basketball to China and to virtually every country in the world continues to fit within our mission,” he asserted in 2021, describing that mission as “to improve people’s lives through the game of basketball.”
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