China's young basketball talent Zhou Qi has embraced the challenge of charting his own path in the NBA after signing with the Houston Rockets, retired star Yao Ming's former team, to become the league's sixth Chinese player.

The Rockets, which picked Zhou 43rd overall in the 2016 NBA Draft, officially announced on Friday that the team had signed Zhou, 21, to a multiple-year contract after the Chinese national team center spent three years playing with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association.

Zhou will follow retired stars Yao, Wang Zhizhi and Mengke Bateer and join current national teammates Sun Yue and Yi Jianlian to become China's sixth player in the NBA.