MILWAUKEE (AP) -The Milwaukee Bucks have met with draft pick Yi Jianlian for the first time in Las Vegas at the NBA’s Summer League starting there this week.
Yi, Bucks general manager Larry Harris and Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak met for about an hour at a hotel on Thursday to get to know the 6-foot-11 power forward and begin lobbying him to sign with the team. Yi played with the Chinese National Team on Friday night against the Memphis Grizzlies’ summer league team in their opener.
Yi has not visited Milwaukee. In Dallas, where the Chinese National Team played a series of exhibitions earlier this week, he declined to talk about the draft or even the prospect of playing for the Bucks.
Agent Dan Fegan did not return messages left Friday at his office or cell phone.
Fegan had pushed for the 19-year-old Yi to go to a city with a heavy Asian influence, and Yi’s handlers did not allow the Bucks to watch him participate in a predraft workout in Los Angeles.
But Harris said he planned to take the best player available and told Fegan he would not shy away from Yi, even though Milwaukee has only about 1,200 Chinese residents.
In the meantime, Bucks owner and Sen. Herb Kohl has written a letter to Yi, which was delivered by Harris on Thursday, to establish a dialogue with the star.
“We’ll see what happens,” Kohl said. “We’re all in the process of reaching out to try and establish a constructive dialogue with him and his family and representatives.”
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