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Originally Posted by DevinHarriswillstart
What a terrible example to set....then what? A bunch of whiney lottery picks wanting a different team? I mean yeah Yi for Wright, so whatever right? This is so anti-Stern that it kills me. The guy HAS to have control...so why not control it? Punishing small-market teams is the absolute worst thing in sports. The Chinese are going to root for Yi, no matter what, so who cares about the so-called problem of only 1200 Chinese residents in Milwauke. This is almost a Race issue if you think about it. So only Chinese can come to cheer for Yi? What if Germany said Dirk can't play because Dallas has a small number of German residents. We'd be totally screwed right about now.
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There is no precedent being set, in the NBA or in other professional leagues. This kind of thing rarely happens, but it has happened before and will continue to happen as long as the drafted player has some options...some leverage. Prior to signing a contract saying "I won't report and you will waste your pick" is all the leverage a player has. It just rarely happens because how many dudes have the option to make big cheese doing something else? Foreign players like Yi have that option. They probably won't make as much as they could in the NBA but they would still make some serious money.
That's why I don't see why everyone is so pissed at this kid...this is nothing new, especially when dealing with foreign players. Sabonis chose an international league over the NBA in 1989. Vasquez did the same to Orlando just a few seasons ago. If a foreign player doesn't like the city that picked him for whatever reason, is it that suprising for them to say I don't want to go there, when I could stay here and still play basketball? Was it that suprising when Elway was like I would rather play baseball or whatever than play for Baltimore? Some big-time college QB just got passed on by many NFL teams because he chose to play baseball instead. Ainge chose basketball over other sports...and I'm assuming someone drafted him. Being drafted just gives a team your rights....but if you don't feel that going there is the best thing for you then you have every right to tell that team to go to hell, especially when you told them from day 1 "I don't want to play there...don't come see me work out, etc". I'm amazed that a bunch of Americans would choose the rights of a corporation over a free individual in this case...