Yi Jianlin  is doing for the Bucks what Sixers President/General Manager Billy King must have envisioned when he led a scouting contingent first to China, then to Southern California: to make certain Yi, agent Dan Fagen and the Chinese Federation understood the depth of their interest.

King tried - hard - to move up in the draft to select Yi or, failing that, to work out a postdraft trade with the Bucks. Even though Bucks’ General Manager Larry Harris said trading the 6-11 forward/center “was never an option,” sources have indicated that the Sixers had a few different packages on the table.