The Buck starts here

Basketball nuts know Yi for his clutch shooting and crafty rebounding. Young girls rhapsodize about his smile and his expressive black eyes. And businessmen see him as a global brand. But is he ready for such a multi-faceted role on basketball's biggest stage?

The answer is: yes.

With two more days to go until his NBA regular season debut, the 19-year-old looks ready to fly higher than even Yao Ming's rookie year.

"I feel great ahead of the new season," Yi said. "I felt great playing the preseason games and the training intensity here makes me stronger. I want to play game by game and see where I will be."

Yi is yet to reach his full potential as a player, but he has already showed a bit of what he can do. He held his own in eight preseason games, averaging 10.5 points and 4.8 rebounds.

His role as a rebounder, a defender and a second scorer casts him in a clear role as Robin to Michael Redd's Batman on the Bucks, though he'll have to vie for scoring opportunities with offensive-minded players like Redd and Desmond Mason taking many of the shots.

"I want to contribute to the franchise as much as possible," Yi said. "One of the best ways I made it to the floor was through defense and rebounding."

If Yi can keep up the pace he has set in the preseason, he'll have a chance to break a number of Chinese-rookie records set by Houston Rockets All-Star center Yao.

As the 2002 overall No 1 pick, Yao took nine games to earn a starting position on the Rockets. His 13.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game are the best stats achieved by any Chinese player in the NBA, let alone a rookie.

Yi started four of the Bucks' eight exhibition games and shot 43 percent from the field. Chinese media call his preseason performance "perfect" considering the fact Yao only averaged 2.3 points and three rebounds in his preseason games as a rookie and didn't score a single point in his regular season debut.

But Yi does not like to be compared to Yao. "I don't want to predict my stats, whatever they may be - higher or lower than Yao's," he said.

The Milwaukee organization is still trying to rebuild its image after last season, when it managed only 28 wins and finished near the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

The team will look to its power forwards to bring some stability to the roster, but who spends the most time in the four-spot is still up in the air. Head coach Larry Krystkowiak said he likes what he's seen in the competition between Yi and fellow power forward Charlie Villanueva, and thinks it will improve the team. He also said both players would get enough floor time to make a difference no matter who starts.

Villanueva put up almost the same stats as Yi during the preseason - he started three times and averaged 10.8 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.

"For me, it doesn't matter to start," Yi told JSOnline. "It's my first season, and I just want to play hard on the court and do my job. I will try to get some rebounds and play good defense."

Before Yi, no Chinese power forward has had much success in the modern era, and with good reason. The position is so demanding mentally and so punishing physically that Chinese players often find it hard to execute their skills with so much body contact.

But Yi's inside play has won him praise from the Bucks coaching staff.

"I love what he's doing," Krystkowiak said. "I'm really encouraged for what the future holds for him. It's been remarkable how fast he's picked some things up.

"Once his mind gets free, and he's more and more comfortable, I think he's really going to blossom."

(China Daily 10/30/2007 page22)