Get your ass to Milwaukee!

I really do not understand how this situation with Yi Jianlian and the Milwaukee Bucks has gotten to this point but this would be the perfect time for Stern and the suits to make the neccessary modifications to ensure this never happens again. I would have thought these steps should have happened after Steve "Franchise Killer" Francis cried his way out of Vancouver in the late 90's but obvious nothing was done about that. Is it that hard to understand the difference between the draft and free agency? What if Greg Oden did not want to play for Portland? He wanted to play for Detroit or New York or Miami. Well in 3 or 4 years when his rookie contract is over, he could then make those choices as that is FREE AGENCY. The draft is designed (forgetting the whole lottery thing) to help the weaker teams get stronger by giving them the first pick of that years batch of new players entering the league. Not too allow this new class of players the power to hand pick the citys that play for.

Milwaukee is not the ideal situation at all for Yi of course. Besides playing in a city with a small Asian market, there is also a bit of a log jam in the front court of the Bucks team with Charlie V also playing the power forward position (although Charlie V did put some time in at the small forward position and did well doing so) but it does not matter what issues Yi or his agent Dan Fegan or any one of Yi's handlers have with playing for Milwaukee for the first few years of his career. The draft is what it is and for the 6th pick Milwaukee choose you. Now it's time for Yi to take his million dollar contract and suck it up princess!

I have also read some opinions on the net that Milwaukee is also to be blamed for this mess as they already had known what would potentially happen if they picked Yi. I am not sure if they should be blamed for anything, although I wonder if they would make the same decision again if given the chance to redo the draft. Really the NBA itself is the ones that needs to step in here and fix this mess. Although it is not a frequent occurance when a city gets rejected like this, no matter what the reason for rejecting the team it is a slap in the face to the franchise but most importantly the fans of that franchise. And it's the fans that need to be protected. Trust me, I felt the slap Francis layed on Vancouver just like how Alonzo Mourning slapped our faces when he refused to report to Toronto when traded here in the Vince Carter package. Time for the NBA to lay down the law and ensure this situation never happens again.