Posted by TMS:
if you look at it like it's business & it's easier to not be so bothered by it... think of yourself graduating out of MIT at the top of your class & being recruited by a company that you didn't want to work for (i know it's a huge stretch to imagine that but humor me bro ;p)... say you had told them you wouldn't work for them if they tried to recruit you, but they decided they'd go after you anyway... do you have the right to state a preference of where you want to work straight out of college? you do if you're highly touted & many companies want you... on the other hand, if you're graduating out of community college with a C average, you really don't have much choice in the matter on where you go, so you accept whatever acceptable job that becomes available & thank your lucky stars that you're not baggin' groceries or pumpin' gas someplace... i know it's not exactly the same thing since the draft is not the same as being recruited as a free agent... in Yi's case, he can easily forego playing for MIL, go play for his home team & bide his time if he wants to sign on w/a team as a free agent down the road... it's his choice to make, & i don't begrudge him of that... it's 3 years of his life that he's committing to here if he decides to go to MIL... MIL shouldn't be able to force someone to go someplace they don't want to go... they had the option of trading Yi's rights to get a talented player in return, & they passed up on it... they made their choice, now Yi is making his... it's business to me.
personally, if this was the Knicks we were talking about, i wouldn't want any part of a player that didn't want to play here, no matter how talented.
I see your side, I really do TMS. I'm going to use your same example, about the whole getting out of college and getting a job thing. And don't think I didn't see that little snide comment you threw in there!
Anyways, say I got out of college and said. "Alright, I just graduated, I've never shown any employer what I can do aside from graduating college and showing them the courses I've taken (which can be compared against NBA pre-draft workouts.) I haven't proven myself but employers know my grades (comparable to height/weight/length/wingspan/jumpshot/rebounding - all that good stuff.) Now that I'm out, I want to work for Google and only Google and anyone who else that tries to hire me will just get shot down. If I take that stance, I'll be on the street with no job EVER because I wasn't smart enough to take a job, work really hard until I am ready to leave (comparable to NBA free-agency) and take my skills to whatever company I want.
If I did what Yi did, I'd be on the streets because I wouldn't be able to find a job anywhere.
