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Yi Jianlian - 19-yr-old big man, 7-0, 246 with extreme upside. The 6th pick of the 2007 draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. The 4th Chinese player to make it to the NBA and 2nd player to be selected in the first round. A spoiled little brat that does not understand how the draft works.

All those sentencs above can describe the young Chinese star. After being selected by the Bucks, Yi already showed signs of immaturity by skipping the Bucks’ news conference to announce their draft picks and flew to Dallas to for the Chinese National team’s training. According to his agents, Team Yi, “We feel that the Bucks are not the best fit for Yi Jianlian. Our team will make contact with other teams who have watched Yi’s training and games to see if there is any possibility of a trade.”

That is not how it works.

Their reason for not wanting to playing Milwaukee is the lack of Chinese population, according to Census data, Milwaukee has a little more than 1,200 Chinese residents among its population of nearly 600,000 (ESPN News). Team Yi believes that Milwaukee is too small of a market for a big start like Yi. By not showing up for the news conference, by seeking trades almost immediately, Yi and his advisers are giving the rest of Chinese population a bad name. They show no respect to the city of Milwaukee, the Bucks organization, the NBA, and small market cities nation-wide. I give the Bucks and its owner credits for taking a risk by standing up for themselves, although it may be a long battle and theirs to lose, but in the long run, it will affect international players, mainly Asian (oh so many of them) in the future.

The action by the young Chinese player is regretful, an American version of such bratty move would probably be Steve Francis. He threw a hissy fit until Vancouver Grizzlies traded him to Houston. Well we all know how Francis’ career turned out, after a couple good seasons, he went to the Magic and eventually became a punchline for Isiah Thomas, and last seen traded to Portland. Even though he was talented and was once an elite guard, he also had the reputation for being a pain in the neck for coaching staffs and the organization. The slight difference between Francis and Yi? Francis showed America what he could do during his years in University of Maryland, and Yi is virtually unknown to the US, as we only saw glimpse of him playing against Team USA.

If Yi really wanted to pick the big market team to play for, he should have gone undrafted and forget about the first round guarantee contract. Yi joined the draft, Yi was a lottery pick, well guess what - it was the lottery for Yi, too. And he lost.

-Paul

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