Like I said, it´s all money:
Yi's Chinese Team Owner The Issue For Bucks?
July 22, 2007 - 12:32 am Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -
The chief obstacle the
Bucks face in getting
Yi Jianlian in a
Milwaukee uniform is Chen Haitau, the private owner of the Guangdong Tigers, the Chinese Basketball Association team for which Yi plays, according to
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Bob Wolfley.
According to Wolfley, Chen doesn't merely view Yi as an employee.
Rather, Chen literally owns Yi and wants to make himself richer by negotiating a buyout agreement, retaining a portion of Yi's endorsement income and maintaining Yi as an ambassador to further Chen's business.
It has been suggested Chen might be looking for as much as 50% of all of Yi's endorsement money.
Yi has to buy out his old contract with the Tigers, agree to assign his representation rights to the Tigers and sign his NBA representation to an agent approved by the Tigers.
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