One could be a pretty eloquent speaker, expressing themself clearly, however, even they would stumble while trying to pronounce Abudushalamu Abudurexiti.
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The NBA has witnessed several international players with pretty unique names. Over the years, we have seen several players with hard-to-pronounce names like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Luc Mbah a Moute, and Aleksej Pokuševski, among many others, set foot on the hardwood.
However, there is one such player in particular whose name you’d definitely not be able to pronounce correctly in the first few tries – Abudushalamu Abudurexiti.
A 26-year-old Chinese Basketball player, Abudushalamu plays for the Xinjiang Flying Tigers since the 2015-2016 CBA China League season.
Back in 2018, as a 22-year-old, the 6-foot-8 forward averaged 7.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 0.7 assists in almost 20 MPG in the Asian league and was invited to work out with NBA teams prior to the 2018 Draft.
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Though Abudurexiti was not picked by any team, the Golden State Warriors gave him a chance by selecting him for their Summer League squad.
Even LeBron James would stumble trying to pronounce Abudushalamu Abudurexiti
In the summer league, Abudushalamu Abudurexiti became famous, not because of his game, but for how unique and difficult it was for everyone to pronounce his name.
Even though Michael Scotto of The Athletic revealed how to pronounce the youngster’s name – Ah-BOO-Doo-Shah-LAH-Moo Ah-BOO-Doo-Rex-EE-Tee – NBA Twitter has a hard time doing so.
Seeing fans completely destroy the pronunciation of his name, Abudushalamu taught everyone to pronounce his name in the right way.
One may ask – Where is Abudushalamu Abudurexiti today? Well, this past 2021-2022 CBA season, the 26-year-old averaged a staggering 23 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 3.8 assists on 49% shooting. Abudurexiti remains one of the brightest young talents in the Chinese league and continues to improve year after year.
