PSB helped student get into UC Berkeley

Xu (Max) Zhang, right, with coach Richard Marquis, has realized part of his parent’s dream, to one day have the possibility of playing at a university, where he can develop the skills to play pro-basketball somewhere in China’s CBA or perhaps the NBA. Max is now headed to UC Berkeley on a basketball scholarship.

Last summer Max was invited to represent China in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou China. He has since left the University at Cal Berkeley and is currently playing for Yao Ming’s Shanghai Sharks Pro Team in the CBA and will again representing China in this summer’s, 2012 Olympic Games in London. This is truly a dream come true.

It was four years ago when a skinny Chinese ball player named Zhang Zhaoxu from the Shan Dong Province and just out of high school.   Zhang was sent to live and be trained by the “Play Smarter” Basketball Class head Coach, Richard Marquis.   He was given his new English name of Max by Coach Marquis’ wife, Shirley Marquis for the word maximum and it has stayed with him ever since.  

At only seventeen years old and with a lot of development to be done, his parents wanted their son to have the best chance to be able to play major university basketball in the USA.  Coach Marquis became their first choice to help Max with their challenge.  After living with Coach Marquis and his family and with a new American diet, Max began to slowly gain weight and even grew a couple of more inches.

Today, Max is a little over 7’3”.  With a lot of help from Max’s uncle Charley Loh and his own dedication and personal desire to improve, it sure didn’t take him long to improve his strength and master his English by living in an English speaking household.   Max started to impress everyone around him and it wasn’t long that many US major universities were calling him on a regular basis.  He trained hard all the time and coach Marquis ask his good friend, Coach Sid Cooke of Renaissance High School to also help out as Max’s personal training coach.

Currently continuing with his development, Max played AAU summer ball for Coach Alan Adrian and Shawn La Tulippae with their Impact travel team.   Max improved very quickly and all of this hard work had paid off when Coach Adrian and uncle Charley helped lead him to a full four year scholarship at a Pack 10 Team at the University California at Berkeley.  With Max’s personal desire and height, Max will be playing basketball for a long time to come.  Last summer Max was invited to represent China in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou China.  He has since left the University at Cal Berkeley and is currently playing for Yao Ming’s Shanghai Sharks Pro Team in the CBA and will again representing China in this   summer’s, 2012 Olympic Games in London.  This is truly a dream come true.