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In between all that, the Beijing Ducks decided Milwaukee was an amazing basketball city for Chinese players. It was the Ducks who made the first visit to the United States by a Chinese pro team -- and it was Milwaukee they picked. For two weeks in August 2005, they had clinics with Marquette coach Tom Crean and Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, went sightseeing and played a couple exhibition games with Bob Lanier coaching them. The first of those two was at the Bradley Center, and though the Ducks took on a group of Midwestern college all-stars, the crowd that night was fully in the visitors' corner.

"I think our whole church showed up to see the slaughter," Pastor Andy Tso said, good-naturedly laughing as he remembered the 300-odd parishioners he brought from the Chinese Christian Church of Milwaukee -- and all the good-natured laughing they did that night.

The Ducks had such a good time that they're now in talks with Payne and his Council co-chair, Bob Kraft, to send their youth team back for six months of intensive training this fall.

"They didn't turn to L.A. or New York," Kraft said. "This is a city that has above-average ties to China and very sophisticated basketball fans. The Ducks turned to Milwaukee."

And so Payne is having the Ducks' chairman call the folks on Yi's Guangdong team. Sen. Herb Kohl, the Bucks' owner, has written Yi a letter asking for a meeting. Regular Milwaukeeans are doing what they always do. Five blocks from the Bradley Center, hammers are banging, turning the old Pabst Brewery into an international trade center and a home for as many as 80 Asian stores. Wong is cooking, promising, "I can feed Yi," and 130 grade-schoolers at the Milwaukee Academy of Chinese Language are drilling their Mandarin.

Yi seems like a nice enough fellow himself. He said all the right things on draft night and didn't sound all that hung up about his representatives' concerns when he insisted he wants to learn English. Of course, this isn't up to Yi.

The Chinese Basketball Association and the Guangdong Tigers have to jointly authorize his release. One of China's top sports sites, Sina.com, reported that the Tigers aren't into Milwaukee, that the team's vice deputy manager, Liu Hongjiang, flatly said the Tigers don't want Yi playing in Milwaukee. Maybe it's not really the culture thing and maybe it's just greed, that big-market thing.

But look, be good and you'll get on TV. LeBron James plays in Cleveland. Be good and you'll get some national endorsement deals. Kevin Garnett plays in Minneapolis. And honestly, Yi's got a lot more time to be good in Milwaukee, where he's singularly wanted, culturally needed, and where the people are, uh, nicer.

"If he plays for the Knicks and misses two free throws, he's getting booed," Payne said. "In Milwaukee, we're more forgiving. Being a bigger fish in a smaller pond is not bad."

And in the end, in the six months of the Bucks' regular season, if Yi really wants that big Chinese pond, if he's really jonesing for a full Chinatown, well, Amtrak needs just 80 minutes to get him from Milwaukee to Chicago. Get to Milwaukee, sign a contract and that $21 fare won't be a big deal.