Max Zhang Not Returning To Golden Bears, Signed Contract With Shanghai Sharks

Is that what that smell was? I thought it was stinky tofu…

Good luck, Max. Thanks for your time as Bear.

I’ll always appreciate you humbling Landry Fields.

This also leaves us with just a single Braun recruit left, Harper Kamp.

On a recruiting note, this gives us another scholarship to use for next year. Wonder if we’ll use it.

This is tough because he was a fan favorite, but I don’t think he was a part of the future anyway. This won’t affect the team much.

I know a lot of people that will be heartbroken though, mostly girls.

1. Good for him. Always want to support an athlete living the dream. I hope he does well.
2. But I am bummed – I liked the concept of Max Zhang, and from I saw there was a lot to like: good guy, decent skills, made an effort, and the potential for all sorts of match-up problems for the other team. He played an important role in a couple of last year’s wins, and I thought he would contribute this year, even if he came back to school late.

for Cal, it’s time for a new team. Monty’s team.
Everyone left from last year’s title team anyways. Max will forever be remembered as member of the Pac10 Champ squad, and it’s time to move on.

hear the name Shanghai Sharks and wish it was Shanghai-Sheks?

but happy for Max

Good luck Max. Hope you come back someday to finish your education.

I’m pretty disappointed actually – Max had the ability to be a game changer (see Stanfurd and Oregon games) and he actually had a really good summer with the Chinese national team.

Would he have been a big contributor to Cal? Probably not this year, but the following season he would’ve been playing decent minutes – and two more years learning from Monty and playing against Pac-10 level athletes would’ve made him that much better a player here in China (aside from Steph Marbury and a handful of other imports – most foreign players here are from mid-majors and below)

Monty can now move on and plan for the future rather than waiting and wondering what was going to happen in the 2nd half of the season.

Kind of like someone accepting a job offer but then leaving within a few weeks of starting….better that they turn the offer down to begin with. It gives Monty a little more ability to manage the team since Max turned down the offer before the season started.