Jason DIxon on Yi

NiuBBall: I saw that Yi Jianlian is now back in Guangdong rooting his old team on after his season with the Washington Wizards is over. You obviously played with him for a while, why do you think he has struggled to live up to expectations in the NBA?

JD: I wouldn’t say he’s struggled.  I think people had this high expectation of Yi and I don’t know where that high expectation came from.  To be quite honest, Yi didn’t dominate the CBA. He only played three years in the CBA and his first two years, I don’t want to say he was a nobody, but he wasn’t dominant.  His third year he did what he was supposed to do.  He got noticed, made noise, but for some reason people were like he’s going to go [to the NBA], he’s going to be a starter, he’s going to average this and have this great career.  I had to bite my tongue about it.  He doesn’t have great ball handling skills.  He has a great outside shot and he’s very athletic.  But, it’s politics, it’s China.  Teams want the Chinese market.  I would say Yi hasn’t had a great career, but it’s been a healthy career.  How many players go into the NBA for a lot of years?  He’s got his years, he’s got his pension.  I think Yao just raised the bar… But, I wish him the best of luck.  I’m curious about what happens when he comes back to play for this team.  What’s going to happen then?  It’s going to be so unfair.

NiuBBall: You think after he’s done in NBA, Yi’s going to come back and play again for Guangdong?

I think he would because he’s such a nice guy and the team has such a good relationship with him.  I think he would do it for one or two seasons.  That’s going to be so unfair.