Fans have known for a long time that the NBA is not what it used to be. I can't even watch regular season games anymore not involving the Suns and a few other select teams. There's no heart from players nowadays or real sense of rivalry. Players back then were in it for the money, but atleast they didn't mail in games and played with palpable intensity. Today's NBA players are robots with both fans and the media, and have a reputation for being pricks a la Kobe Bryant.
I'm sure everyone's heard about the ref corruption. Great, now refs aren't only incompetent bastards, but now they're corrupt bastards too. I bet Rasheed Wallace is sitting at home saying "I told you so" at this very moment. It makes me suspicious too; to think that the last few years of play in the NBA have even been legit.
Team USA is another problem in itself. Adding Jason Kidd was a very good thing. He's the kind of player that needs to be on Team USA. There should be a character screen from now on. I;m tired of arrogant thugs like Melo who may be ballas, but take international competition lightly. From now on, force these guys to live in the Olympic Village too. If it's good enough for Jordan, Barkley, and Malone then it's good enough for Lebron, Melo, and D-Wade
Another thing that makes me pissed is when players "force" themselves out of situations by demanding trades, etc. The worst example of this type of behavior is when drafted players do this type of maneuver. Even worse is when entire governments do the same thing. Well, this is what the Yi Jianlian circus is in a nutshell. I commend the Bucks organization for standing up to the Chinese government sporting body, an entity known for being duplicitous. Their reasoning makes no sense. His marketing potential won't be dented at all if he plays in Milwaukee. If you're good, you get endorsement deals, plain and simple. Look at Lebron he plays in Cleveland. If he doesn't want to live in Milwaukee, which is what I think is the real issue, then he wouldn't be any different from any other NBA player. Most NBA players unless they play in LA or New York don't actually live in the city they play in. It makes no sense to even do that because half of their games are on the road and then there is a substantial break between seasons (when Yi will be playing for China's national team presumably).
Further, Chicago is literally an hour away if he wants to be among a big population of Chinese people so badly. And after YOU ACTUALLY PLAY AND PROVE SOMETHING in the NBA then you can negotiate yourself to LA, New York, or wherever you desire. Yi and the Chinese sporting body are being big crybabies. You can't just force your way in America like you did back in China; there are rules here and being a bully won't work. the best thing for Yi to do is play for Milwaukee -- it'll be a good place to develop.
Plus, it goes against the ethos of the draft. The draft is supposed to help small market teams without big payrolls get better. Regardless if this Yi thing is solved, the NBA can count that as one positive in the last 5 years in this dysfunctional league. Count me out on watching the NBA next year. David Stern needs to regain American fans and stop catering willy-nilly to the international scene
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