Yi is FIBA's Interview of the (Long)Week

by Atma Brother ONE on Aug 10, 2006 9:50 PM PDT in News Comment 10 comments

Thanks to The Yi Movement, Chinese big man Yi Jianlian is rapidly approaching Bay Area icon status. If Bay Area lengend wasn't a lofty enough goal for Yi, he's also the FIBA Interview of the week.

Yi's got a great attitude:

"We don´t worry about our opponents," Yi said. "We just prepare as much as we can. It makes no difference who we face, even if it´s Team USA. We prepare to show the best we can do."

The NBA looks like it's on Yi's horizon on 2k7:

"To play in the NBA," Yi said, "that is the dream of any player."

"I hope one day, I can do that too."

On a side note, I know international hoops rules differ from the NBA, but I never knew that FIBA had different time frames for how long a week was. Yi is still listed as the Interview of the Week on Fiba's home page even though it took place on March 3, 2006. I've heard of long weekends, but damn- that's a LONG WEEK!

Don't sleep on The Yi Movement!

Where do you think GSoM community favorite Yi Jianlian will get drafted in the 2k7 NBA Draft? Top 3? Top 5? Lottery? Middle of the 1st round? Late 1st rounder?

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A little bit of Yi Update:

In an exhibition game last night against Germany, Yi did pretty well in the first-half mainly going up against Nowitzki and ended up with 7 points and 10 rebounds (9 of them in 1st H).

Dirk had a terrible first-half in part thanks to Yi's defence, and even got posterized by Yi on one occasion.

However Dirk caught fire in the second-half and ultimately led his team to victory over China.

by MightyReds2020 on Aug 11, 2006 10:34 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Dirk's one of the best players in the NBA.

If Yi, without a single minute of NBA experience, can shutdown Dirty Dirk for even one half, I think that bodes well.

by Jeremy Belvins on Aug 11, 2006 3:49 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Downing Dirk

DN just might have been picking his spots there, at least that's what his coach hinted at after the game and he did break out later when they needed him ...

by hardcore on Aug 13, 2006 1:12 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hmmmm....

It depends on three factors:

Chinas doings in FIBA. They have to at least get past the group stages and into the round of 16 if its going to raise his stock.

The Guangdong Southern Tigers must win the CBA championship next year in order to make further impact. It will be difficult, as the Bayi Rockets are getting Wang Zhi Zhi back, and they had some exiting games against Guangdong even though it was a 4-1 series, and even without Wang Zhi Zhi.

He must not become injury prone. He go injured in the FIBA, and if he gets injured throughout the season or again in FIBA, he will gain some skeptics.

If all three happen, he's going top 3.
If two happen, he's a Top 10-Lotteryish.
If one happens he's lottery, late 1st roundish.
If none happen he's late first round.

And you can infer the inbetweens.

-Zorgon

by Zorgon on Aug 11, 2006 8:00 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Any chance

We can go two weeks without an article on Yi?

by bigrobbieb on Aug 11, 2006 11:02 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Hahaha

Probably not.

It's the offseason man! We're doing everything we can to keep it interesting and a lot of people are feeling The Yi Movement.

Don't worry though, Yi is just a small % of GSoM this offseason. Granted Yi's gotten a lot of coverage lately, but that's mostly because the FIBA tourney is going to decide whether he goes top 3, top 5, lottery, or mid-1st round in the 2k7 draft.

I hope Yi goes under the radar in the tourney and the Warriors make the playoffs. That way the Dubs can take him in the middle of the 1st round and get a player with high upside. We can have our cake and eat it too!