If he landed in Phoenix, he'd be considered on of our "Bigs" -- which there aren't too many of.  Plus, our Suns like to run the floor, are more entertaining to watch, play on TV a lot, and are in a bigger market.  Personally, the playing on TV a lot and bigger market reasons are the real reasons... jmho.

Who does Yao Ming play for? No matter where the city is in America, if a Chinese idol plays for a team called the "Rockets" (a mascot which the Chinese can appreciate) and gets to wear the color red (a most desirable color in China where the national flag happens to be a blood-soaked red), well then you've sold the Chinese government on the idea.

Now Yi Jianlian is going to be just as famous as Yao. No way do the Chinese authorities want Yi splashed across billions of TVs wearing puke green! They want Yi in RED. To play in the NBA, Yi needs to represent COMMUNIST CHINESE SUPERIORITY.

So that leaves - Toronto, Atlanta, Houston...maybe Miami, Portland or Chicago. This is not about basketball or even Yi himself. It's about making China look good. And China doesn't look good in green.

To that I say: Huh?!? Weren't the Suns on Yi's list of acceptable destinations? I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere. At the very least, his handlers didn't seem to mind when Steve Kerr, David Griffin, and Vinny Del Negro went to watch him work out in Los Angeles.

I think Yi's handlers don't like Milwaukee from the get go.

So if the concern is the amount of playing time, why on earth would they expect he'd get more of that on a championship contender infamous for using a short rotation than he would playing for Milwaukee? Had the Suns drafted Yi, would his people have made guaranteeing a certain number of minutes a provision for his signing? I can't imagine the Suns would have gone along with that,

I don't think they mind Yi getting limited playing time, as long as it's the Phoenix Suns.

From what I've read about Yi, he's "big" in physical height, but not so much in the way he plays. He's been compared to Dirk Nowitzki in that regard--ask the Mavericks how well that works when Dirk tries to play center. If Yi can't play center, then he'd be competing with Shawn Marion, Boris Diaw, and Grant Hill at the forward positions. Even if he did play center, he'd be taking whatever minutes are left behind Amare (that's assuming the Suns used KT in the trade for Yi, if not, he'd be competing with KT too). Since Mike D'Antoni isn't exactly enthusiastic about the prospect of losing games for the sake of developing players, I just don't think Yi would get his "acceptable" amount of playing time here. (Assuming such a thing even exists. Personally, I don't buy it. I think they just thought it would sound better than "Milwaukee isn't glamorous enough", but that's just my opinion).

Yi is said to be versatile enough to play SF, PF, and some Center off the bench.

I agree that this is likely being driven by the people around Yi more so than by Yi himself. But, if he's that good of a player, then he could make a market for himself anywhere in the league, and even if it was just about playing time, he could earn that by beating out the guys in front of him, same as everyone else. Or he could go to on loan to the NBDL if he's not ready--again, just like everyone else.

And play in the NBDL? hahahaha...

As you may have guessed, I'm not a big fan of giving a guy special treatment just because he (or his manager) doesn't want to abide by the same rules everyone else is subjected to. It doesn't really matter whose decision it was, the draft system would fall apart if every player got to pick which teams he was willing to play for.

Hi Michael,

Here's how i see things re the Yi situation.

1. Yi Jianlian is not as good as Yao.
2. Even if Yi is a mediocre player in golden state, LA, or any other place with a huge asian population, at least he's in a friendly and supportive environment within the chinese community. And the team profits by just having him around. but if he plays in Milwaukee, his chances of succeeding in the NBA is smaller, IMO. He has to play well, or else nobody will care for him there. And he'll probably end up back in China after the olympics.

So to my mind, Yi has a better chance of succeeding in Golden State than Milwaukee. And I don't know why Milwaukee chose Yi over Noah, Brewer, Thornton, or Brandin Wright in the first place anyways. I think they are much better players than Jianlian.

3) I don't know if Philly or Phoenix have a sizable Asian population, but apparently Yi's handlers don't mind going there.

Why Phoenix? Probably because it is a title contender and a popular NBA team. Do they mind if Yi gets limited time? Probably not. Is it because they think Yi and Phoenix is a great marketing combination? I don't think so too. I think being on a winning team that gets plenty of exposure in tv is a huge deal for them.

so when you say:

Actually, this is a very smart strategy for forcing a trade. The Bucks could move Yi to a good team, like San Antonio or Phoenix or Dallas, where he would get almost no playing time. He'd be so rusty by the time the Olympics rolled around that the trainer would need to keep an oilcan nearby.

Were this latest stonewalling actually the case, the Bucks should trade Yi for Bruce Bowen - yeah, like that's going to happen - and really sabotage China's illusions of home-court gold.

But why Philly? My guess is that they see the sixers as a great franchise, and continues to remain popular in asia because of iverson (who's in denver now). And they see Philadelphia as a "bigger" more "cosmopolitan" city, and a better place for a Chinese like Yi to live in than Milwaukee.

of course, nothing i say here will soothe your anger, and you're right that we can't let these chinese boss us around--but larry harris should have known better than to draft Yi. His choice was really inexplicable since there were better players below him.

I do feel some sympathy for the Bucks, but not much.