Song Tao (basketball)

{{short description|Chinese basketball player and coach}}

{{family name hatnote|Song|lang=Chinese}}

{{Infobox basketball biography

| name = Song Tao
宋涛

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1965|11|6}}

| birth_place = Shandong, China

| height_ft = 6

| height_in = 10

| weight_lbs = 200

| high_school =

| draft_year = 1987

| draft_round = 3

| draft_pick = 67

| draft_team = Atlanta Hawks

| career_start = 1985

| career_end = 2000

| career_position = Forward

| career_number =

| years1 = 1995

| team1 = Yulon Dinos

| years2 = 1995-1996

| team2 = LUCKIPar

| years3 = 1996-1999

| team3 = Yulon Dinos

| years4 = 1999-2000

| team4 = BCC Mars

| highlights =

}}

Song Tao ({{lang-zh|s=宋涛}}; born November 6, 1965) is a Chinese former basketball player and coach. {{convert|6|ft|10|in|cm|abbr=on}} with impressive mobility, he was the first player from Asia drafted by an NBA team when the Atlanta Hawks selected him in the 3rd round of the 1987 NBA draft,[https://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_1987.html Full list of draftees in the 1987 NBA Draft on Basketball Reference.com] although he never went to training camp due to serious knee injuries.

Song competed at 1988 Seoul Olympic Games{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} and was the flag bearer of the Chinese Olympic team. He retired from China men's national basketball team in 1991 and became a player-coach in the Shandong provincial team. In 1993, Song went to study in San Francisco, California and then moved to Taiwan to compete in the professional Chinese Basketball Alliance until he retired there around the turn of the century. He coached the National Chiao Tung University varsity team in the ensuing years.

Song returned to China in 2003, and has since lived in Suzhou, Jiangsu where he became a businessman.