Tigers Deny Report about Yi Paper Sticks To Story

The Yi Jianlian saga just keeps getting “curiouser and curiouser.” Thursday reports surfaced that the Guangdong Tigers are denying a story in the Beijing News earlier this week. That story reported that team owner Chen Haitao made statements that Yi would “definitely not” play for the Milwaukee Bucks the team that drafted him in the NBA Draft last month. Liu Hongjiang a vice president of the Tigers said that the team had not spoken with the newspaper. The Beijing News sticks by the accuracy of their story, saying that Chen said not only would Yi not sign with Milwaukee but he could possibly end up playing back with the Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association this upcoming season. So, now it really starts to get cool if you are a conspiracy theorist; Did Chen pull a “John Rocker” and say stuff that he assumed was off the record but he was actually being quoted? Is the Beijing News putting up a “trial balloon” and using the Tigers as the “vehicle” to float the story? Are we dealing with an overzealous reporter, who may be bending the truth? And where exactly does Yi stand on all this? Something tells me this going to get a lot stranger before it is resolved.