It’s official: the Lakers have signed Sun Yue, a 6-foot-9 guard from China who played in the just-completed Beijing Olympics. He averaged 6.8 points, 2.5 assists and 1.7 rebounds in six games for China, which failed to medal and didn’t give Team USA much of a game in the Olympic opener.
Sun’s signing continues the Lakers’ embrace of foreign players. He joins a roster that hails from the four corners of the globe (or the four corners of Europe, anyway). Center Pau Gasol is from Spain. Backup forward Vladimir Radmanovic is from Serbia. Backup guard Sasha Vujacic is from Slovenia.
Expect Kobe Bryant to drop a few words of Chinese on his teammates (and reporters) once training camp begins late next month. He has been known to speak in Spanish with Gasol and Italian with Vujacic. No reason to believe he won’t have mastered a few words of Chinese to speak with Sun.