FanHouse

A few months after Chinese star Yao Ming ended his NBA season early to have his foot surgically repaired, China's #2 basketball player, Yi Jianlian of the Bucks, joined his countryman on the shelf. Chatter had folks believing each could have played through the injuries, but that might have cost them full health for the Beijing Olympics. Yi's situation received less scrutiny, partly because Yi < Yao and partly because Yi's team sat mired in a run for the league's worst record instead of the league's championship.

While Yao's recovery has been rather public, Yi hasn't gotten much pub stateside as he works back toward Beijing. But the Buck is back on the court for the Chinese national team's exhibition gauntlet, and the early reviews are good: BrewHoop reports Yi went for 18 points and 13 rebounds in 28 minutes against a B-team from Croatia.

Back in March, reports out of Milwaukee had Yi suffering from fatigue. BrewHoop also posts up the Chinese team's summer schedule: the team has something like 15 exhibitions scheduled before the Olympics, plus several blank weeks assumed to be set aside for practice. If Yi was tired this season, after 50 games and limited summertime national team commitments, how's he going to feel three weeks into Scott Skiles' preseason boot camp?