China's top basketball official to try to end Yi-Bucks stalemate

Warhawk

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http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2956930

BEIJING -- China's top basketball official will travel to the United States to try and end the standoff between the Milwaukee Bucks and their top draft pick Yi Jianliang, state media reported on Tuesday.
The seven-foot power forward is reported to have snubbed a move to Milwaukee despite being the overall sixth choice in June's draft and faces a year away from the NBA if he cannot resolve the dispute or secure a trade.
Yi is currently playing for China in the Stankovic Cup in his home province of Guangdong but an expected visit by Bucks' officials to discuss the stalemate has not materialized, the China Daily reported.
"I will go to the United States in the coming days to help Yi solve the problem," China Basketball Association (CBA) chief Li Yuanwei was quoted as saying.
"I will have a talk with Yi at the Stankovic Cup to see what he thinks.
"The Bucks side didn't send their officials to China this time as they promised, so I will take some time to get this resolved."
Yi, listed as 19 despite many in China believing him to be up to four years older, has not signed a contract with the Bucks and his agent Dan Fegan has been seeking a trade over the last month.
 
Depends on which "they" you're referring to. The suspicion has been around for a long time that Chinese officials lied about his age to strength their youth team. Since they and they alone have possible access to the real birth records - and such records could easily have been doctored years ago - it might be something that can never be proven although widely accepted.
 
Warhawk said:
Yi, listed as 19 despite many in China believing him to be up to four years older.
Click to expand...

Funny how certificates work in Communist countries. Considering that we have a Treblinka Death Camp guard (Ivan Demjanjuk) living free and untouchable in the US because of a forged Soviet certificate, it's safe to assume that Yi might be a tad older than 19.
 
VF21 said:
Depends on which "they" you're referring to. The suspicion has been around for a long time that Chinese officials lied about his age to strength their youth team. Since they and they alone have possible access to the real birth records - and such records could easily have been doctored years ago - it might be something that can never be proven although widely accepted.
Click to expand...
Why do you assume there are "real birth records"? People forget that out side the major cites China is a still a 3rd world country where most births do not ocur in hospitals, and as far as record keeping even in big cities you try to keep track of a billion or three birth records with out a computer system. There does not have to be skull dugery for there to be questions about Yi's age.
 
in chinese culture, they begin counting age when you are conceived where as in american culture they count it when you are delivered. there shouldn't be that much of a disparity in age tho. .. 19 and 22 is alot of gap.
 
KMart23 said:
in chinese culture, they begin counting age when you are conceived where as in american culture they count it when you are delivered. there shouldn't be that much of a disparity in age tho. .. 19 and 22 is alot of gap.
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Very long pregnancy? :p

So far as I know this whole thing got started a few years back when Yi's birthdate was inadvertently listed at the older age on a roster or some such. The Chinese claimed it was just a clerical error. What I have to assume were previously suspicious sorts outside of China immediately seized upon the "error" as an indication of his real age. Who knows? Certianly would not put it past the Chinese to be fudging about his age, but its not like there is some sort of overwhelming evidence of it. Just the one "error", and who knows, maybe that's all it was.
 
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Seems like we've been talking about "19 year old Yi" for at least 6 months or longer. When does he turn 20? Anyway, I think he could be 21, maybe soon to be 22.
 
oden is like 35... straight up.... he looks like lebrons uncle... that or bill russell's 35 ur old son...
 
kennadog said:
Yao supposedly has a birth certificate, too. Do you believe his?
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the difference is that yao, lebron, and oden all entered the nba with a clear potential for success. and we're not talkin' about the marginal fringe all star kinda success. we're talkin' about a full blown super star level of success. yao and lebron have both achieved that, as it was projected they would. oden is built to play like the next bill russel. he's gonna be a defensive powerhouse, and we'll see how his offensive game progresses. regardless, he likely will also see some serious success in the nba as well.

point is, yi jianlian's potential doesn't come close to matching any of these players mentioned. it's uncertain how he will pan out in the nba. with a big question mark surrounding his ability to succeed, his age becomes a serious factor. the difference between 19 and 22 is astronomical in the sense that, at 19, there's much room left for development. at 22, his physical development and basketball development should be peaking. there's not as much room for growth. it doesn't matter whether or not anyone "believes" what his birth certificate says, or "believes" what anyone else says his age is. what matters is how willing a team is to bank on a questionable talent.

milwaukee thought he was worth the 6th pick, having never seen him play in any capacity beyond whatever video footage they may have acquired, and all the while knowing he didn't want to play for them to begin with. now both parties are at a stalemate, and it might be up to some other team to decide whether or not yi's potential is worth whatever they might give up to get him. in terms of milwaukee dealing with a chinese official to strike an agreement so that yi will play for them, his age will be 19. it doesn't matter if milwaukee actually believes he's 19, because they've already bought into his hype (and consequently, may have to bite the bullet and trade him). under those circumstances, milwaukee will have to bring another team into the fold to facilitate a trade. at that point, yi's age will flux between 19 and 22, depending on which is most available to use as leverage.

at 19, it doesn't much matter where he comes from or what system he's played under. at 19, he's an athletic project with a lot of potential who can be molded for the modern nba game, and that will impact trade talks in a specific way. at 22, where he has played and the system he's learned is very important. at 22, he's an established chinese talent hoping for crossover success in the nba, and that impacts trade talks differently. if he's anywhere in between, you can consider him a top chinese talent with some room for growth. regardless, there's no clear answer for the age question, so "trusting" or "not trusting" chinese documentation is an exercise in futility. yi's a risk either way, because scouting reports vary so greatly. the certainty of a lebron james or a yao ming is not there. if he were a certainty, the difference between 19 and 22 wouldn't seem so great. if there were lebron james level assurances, then this draft would have been even more stacked, and he likely would have gone 2nd or 3rd or 4th. would we still be having this discussion then? well...i guess it's all dependent on whether or not yi would have minded playing in seattle, atlanta, or memphis. ;)
 
kennadog said:
Yao supposedly has a birth certificate, too. Do you believe his?
Click to expand...

If Yao has a birth certificate I would believe it since I have not heard of any dispute about his age whatsoever. The question is about Yi. The NBA says Yi Jianlian has never produced an official Chinese birth certificate because he doesn't have one. As was stated earlier here, some of the 1.3 billion people in China don't have birth certificates and it's usually because they were born in more remote areas of the country and not in a hospital setting. The only official documents Yi has produced are his Chinese passport and residency papers for his birthplace (Heshan, Guangdong province) and the area he mostly grew up (ShenZhen). The Milwaukee Bucks have said they believe Yi was born in October 1987, but acknowledge it could be that he was born a year or two earlier. A couple of reports had him born in 1984, but that seems less likely with more recent investigation.
 
This might be a stupid question, but can't medical tests be done to confirm a peron's age? If so, why no do it on Yi?
 
PurpleHaze said:
If Yao has a birth certificate I would believe it since I have not heard of any dispute about his age whatsoever. The question is about Yi. The NBA says Yi Jianlian has never produced an official Chinese birth certificate because he doesn't have one. As was stated earlier here, some of the 1.3 billion people in China don't have birth certificates and it's usually because they were born in more remote areas of the country and not in a hospital setting. The only official documents Yi has produced are his Chinese passport and residency papers for his birthplace (Heshan, Guangdong province) and the area he mostly grew up (ShenZhen). The Milwaukee Bucks have said they believe Yi was born in October 1987, but acknowledge it could be that he was born a year or two earlier. A couple of reports had him born in 1984, but that seems less likely with more recent investigation.
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A long time ago (70's) I worked for the Social Security Administration as a claims rep. You probably would not believe the number of US citizens, at least from the early part of the 20th century, who have no birth certificates. Similar reasons: born at home, fires/floods of record-keeping facilities, etc.

There is plenty of other documentation that SSA accepts as birth documentation. Baptism certificates or census documentation were the most common. Heck, they'd even accept the family Bible record, if it appeared authentic.

Unless someone can prove a different birthdate.......? (I swear Oden looks like he's 45. If he was from Africa would we question his vital records?)

Interesting information on Chinese records here:

http://shenyang.usconsulate.gov/civil_records_china.html
 
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