The Chinese Basketball Association announced the official nomination list for the 2026 Chinese Basketball Hall of Fame on October 8, featuring prominent figures from Guangdong basketball alongside legendary players, coaches, and historic national teams.
Du Feng and Zhu Fangyu Lead Men’s Nominees Following Front Office Shifts
Longtime Guangdong Southern Tigers pillars Du Feng and Zhu Fangyu headline the elite men’s player nominations for the 2026 Hall of Fame class. The joint nomination arrives just months after organizational adjustments at Guangdong Hongyuan, where Du transitioned from head coach to head coach (总教练) and Zhu stepped down as club general manager to serve as an honorary advisor. Both figures spent more than two decades defining the franchise’s identity on the court and from the bench.
During their storied playing careers, Du and Zhu formed the core of the Guangdong dynasty in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and anchored the senior Chinese national team. Zhu, who joined the Guangdong senior team in 1999, collected eight CBA titles, secured two regular-season MVP awards and four finals MVP honors, and became the first player in league history to surpass 10,000 career points. Following his retirement, he transitioned to the club’s general manager role in 2017, overseeing another three-peat of CBA championships.
Du claimed seven CBA titles as a player and earned the distinction of being the league’s inaugural finals MVP. As a head coach, he guided Guangdong to three consecutive championships spanning the 2018–2019, 2019–2020, and 2020–2021 seasons, while also serving as head coach of the national team.
Full Nominee Slate Covers Players, Coaches, and Historic Teams
The 2026 nomination ballot spans six distinct categories: elite male athletes, elite female athletes, elite coaches, elite referees, Chinese basketball pioneers, and outstanding collectives.
Alongside Du and Zhu, the elite men’s player category features Lu Dinghou, Wang Zhaoyu, Wu Xinshui, Sun Fengwu, and Zhang Jingsong. The elite women’s player category includes six nominees: Ma Shenmei, Tian Wenhui, Qiu Chen, Zheng Dongmei, Chen Nan, and Bian Lan.
Four figures earned nominations in the elite coach category: Lü Changxin, Zhang Dawei, Li Qiuping, and Adiljan. Li Qiuping, widely known by his tactical moniker “Little Zhuge,” previously led both the Shanghai and Xinjiang men’s basketball teams to CBA titles. The referee category includes Han Maofu, Zhang Yusheng, and Gao Caixing, while Liu Zhuofu and Fu Jinsheng enter the pioneers category.
Three historic national teams comprise the outstanding collective nominees: the 1984 Olympic women’s national team, the 2004 Olympic men’s national team, and the 2008 Olympic women’s national team.
Reset Rules Shape the Selection Process
The selection committee maintained its established “reset” protocol for the 2026 cycle, automatically returning any candidate or collective that failed to advance from previous stages back to their original entry point. Nominees qualifying for this reset include Wu Xinshui, Sun Fengwu, Zhang Jingsong, Zheng Dongmei, Bian Lan, Lü Changxin, and Zhang Yusheng, alongside the 1984 women’s and 2004 men’s Olympic squads.
Following the public disclosure of the nomination list, the selection process moves to the voting phase. A dedicated recommendation committee will cast ballots to determine the finalist pool, which then passes to the final review committee to establish the official 2026 Hall of Fame inductee class.
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