By Walter Dubowec

Suppose you are walking through the Wisconsin countryside and come across a giant steamy pile of cow dung. What would you do? Safe to say you would avoid it, right?

Now picture Milwaukee Bucks’ GM Larry Harris in that same cow pasture. What would he do?

Based on what we saw on Draft Night, Larry would probably jump into the pile of cow manure with both feet!

At least that’s what he did when he rather foolishly drafted Yi Jianlian with the sixth pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. Larry is now knee deep in crap and he doesn’t how to get the poop off his boots.

               
                              Both Yi and Jabbar Rejected The Milwaukee Bucks

What has everyone scratching their heads is that this a terribly messy situation which could have been very easily avoided.

Yi Jianlian has no plans to play for the Milwaukee Bucks. The Chinese Basketball Association and Yi’s agent made that abundantly clear leading up to the draft.

Is Yi's stance right? No. It’s not fair to a small market team.

However, the Steve Francis draft fiasco with the Vancouver Grizzlies proved that there is no happy ending for a team that drafts a player who simply doesn’t want to be there. On the flip side, the Toronto Raptors have built a solid squad full of guys who are happy being in Toronto which, just two years ago was considered the NBA’s Siberia.

The lesson learned here? There are plenty of good basketball players who want to play for your team. Select them and forget about the rest. Your basketball team will do just fine without the whiners.

The Bucks and Larry Harris are now in a Real Bind.

Chen Haitao, owner of the Guangdong Tigers, Yi's former team, said the 6-foot-11 power forward will "definitely not" sign with Milwaukee and could be headed back to the Chinese Basketball Association. "If the Bucks insist, Yi will go back to the CBA," Chen told the Beijing News.

"We want to find a team that is good for Yi's development. That's the root of the problem."  The Chinese National Team believes they can finish Top 4 or higher in the Beijing Olympics with Yi playing along side Yao Ming. They don’t see Yi getting many minutes with Milwaukee’s crowded front court.

                           
                                    Yao and Yi Give Olympic Hope To China

The draft day selection of Yi Jianlian was a massive miscalculation by Larry Harris, which has backfired. While I don't like what Yi is doing, (nor did I support Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, back in the day when he demanded the Bucks trade him to NY or LA), Yi's people gave fair warning to Larry Harris. They were completely upfront with the Bucks.

Larry Harris had Solid Pre-Draft options

This was a deep draft and Harris had two excellent options which would have worked out fine and a third option …. well, not so good. Those options were:

#1. Draft anyone but Yi
#2. Trade the #6 pick
#3. Select Yi and take your chances

In a move that defies logic, the Bucks chose ‘door number three’.

Word is that right up until the draft, Larry Harris was madly shopping the sixth pick to NBA teams desirable to Yi’s people, including to the Toronto Raptors.

However, Bryan Colangelo had absolutely no interest in parting with the asking price of Andrea Bargnani. Apparently, Harris was also insisting that for anyone to get #6, they had to accept back Dan Gadzuric and his horrible contract, so there were no takers.
 

The Yi selection was Perplexing

The Yi selection by Milwaukee was a perplexing move from many perspectives:

1. Most of the Bucks staff never saw Yi play or workout in person. Larry Harris never saw him play live. He selected Yi based on video highlights and his father’s (Del Harris) recommendation.

2. It’s not like Yi is the next Yao, Lebron or even Oden. Yi is far from a 'sure thing'. For all we know, Yi will become the Chinese reincarnation of Keith Van Horn.

3. The Bucks already have a solid cast of bigs with Bogut, Villaneuva and Gadzuric up front. So they don't really need Yi.

4. Corey Brewer, Julian Wright, Acie Law, Thaddeus Young and even Marco Belinelli were still on the board and they might have better filled the Bucks’ needs.

Instead, Larry Harris went the Best Player Available route and picked Yi, even though he was 99.99% certain that Yi would never don a Bucks’ uniform.

So what are Larry Harris’ options now?

He has only one option. Trade Yi and get the best deal possible. Having a disgruntled Yi report to camp is not an option. There is no situation where a Yi/Bucks marriage can work.

By being forced to trade Yi now, Harris will end up with less than if he had traded the pick earlier or selected another player. That’s the way it is. His hand has been forced and the vultures are circling.

Harris has lost much of the leverage he had prior to the draft. He obviously learned nothing from the Vancouver fiasco with Steve Francis.

             
                   Stevie Francis: "Yo, Yao ...Yi can call me for advice, Yes?"

Rumor is that the Golden State Warriors may have the best chance of cutting a deal to get Yi. They have some desirable trading pieces and have resigned themselves to being out of the Kevin Garnett sweepstakes. Yi might be a good consolation prize and Yi would certainly feel at home playing in the Bay Area with its large Asian population.

It appears that both the Bucks' and Yi’s camp are digging in their heels prior to the final showdown. Only problem is that Larry Harris’s heels are covered in dung and this whole affair is getting stinkier by the day.

If the Bucks don’t come out of this mess smelling like a rose, then Larry Harris may find himself on the outside looking in.

Hindsight is 20/20. That doesn’t change the fact that this is an awful predicament the Bucks are in which could have easily been avoided if not for a terrible error in judgment by Larry Harris.