NBA star Stephen Curry said on Thursday that he wants to locate the one-armed Chinese boy whose dazzling basketball skills have gone viral online.
“Who is this kid? Help me find him! Keep doing you and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t,” the Golden State Warriors player wrote to his 4.5 million followers on China’s Twitter-like Weibo.
13-year-old Zhang Jiacheng lost his right arm in an accident at just five year's of age in China, but he never gave up his dream of becoming a basketball player. Be it rainy or windy, Zhang never stops training, and has witnessed huge improvement in his skills. WATCH THIS! pic.twitter.com/DtI2Th0Pw1
— SHINE (@shanghaidaily) May 31, 2020
The post was accompanied by footage of the boy bamboozling opponents with his dribbling, despite his disability.
He was named this week by Chinese state media as 13-year-old Zhang Jiacheng and the original clip of him has been viewed nearly nine million times online in China — and rising fast.
Zhang was born in the southern province of Guangdong and lost his right arm in an accident at five years old, Xinhua news agency said.
“Heart is always the strongest part of the body,” Xinhua quoted Chinese basketball star Yi Jianlian, formerly of the NBA, as saying after watching the clip of the teenager.
Zhang has also been invited to visit Chinese Basketball Association champions Guangdong Southern Tigers.
“This is the best kid I have ever seen playing basketball,” the team’s general manager Zhu Fangyu wrote on Weibo.