NBA Bucks to Yi - please come and see Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE (AFP) - Milwaukee Bucks general manager Larry Harris is confident that Chinese power forward Yi Jianlian will play for his National Basketball Association club when the season opens in three months.

His message Monday to the talented 7-footer was simple - give us a chance.

"I believe (Yi) will be in a Bucks uniform," Harris said. "We haven't found one player yet that has not enjoyed Milwaukee once they got here. We've had tremendous support from the community, civic leaders, the Chinese community.

"It's almost like Milwaukee has taken the stance, 'Give us a shot and you won't regret it.'"

The northern Midwest city on the western shore of Lake Michigan is known for beer brewing in a region known for dairy products and devotion to sport teams such as the Bucks and Green Bay Packers, small town stars of American football.

Yi's NBA future has elicited differing responses from Chinese officials, the latest saying that he will play for the Bucks. Harris says progress has been made and talks continue but has no timetable for a final decision.

"We are making progress. We're still talking," he said. "There's no timetable for anything except we know when training camp starts.

"Our vision is to have No. 11 (Yi) in uniform here come the first day of training camp (in October) and that's what we think is going to happen."

Newly signed forward Desmond Mason hopes Yi will be his new teammate but said he can relate to Yi's reluctance after seeing the winter snow when being traded to the Bucks in 2003.

"The snow was coming down so hard and I was like, 'I can't believe we're in Milwaukee. This is crazy,'" Mason recalled. "After we found our niche and got our home and got in the community, we realized what a great place it was here.

"People want to see a team play hard. That's what I've got to say to him. The decision is far from up to me. But when it's all said and done, you give things a chance and you may like it."

Snow and cold are things Chinese NBA superstar Yao Ming rarely sees in south Texas playing for the Houston Rockets, but Yi, training with the Chinese team this week for a tournament in his homeland, would have a warm reception here.

Bucks owner Herb Kohl has invited Yi, his family and Chen Haitao, ownerof his Chinese league squad Guangdong Tigers, to visit Milwaukee.

"We're anxious for him to accept the invitation. Hopefully that will come soon," Harris said.

NBA rules allow the Bucks to pay up to 500,000 dollars to the Tigers to secure his release from China and the Milwauke Journal-Sentinel newspaper reported that Yi would have to sign two agreements with the Tigers.

One would involve a contract buyout that could link Yi to a spokesman's role with the team or its parent company. The other would assign his representation rights to a Tigers-owned group which could then assign his NBA agent rights to Los Angeles-based Dan Fegan, who has been handling Yi's NBA talks.