NBA Draft: My Awards On The Day After
A day later I'm handing out my awards from the 2007 NBA Draft.Let's get right to it.
Biggest Marketing Loser: Yi Jianlian to Milwaukee:
Right behind Greg Oden and Kevin Durant this guy qualified as the third most marketable guy in the draft because of the size of the market in China. Throw that out the door now. Milwaukee is pretty much the absolute worst city he could be in since there's nothing close to a Chinese market in Milwaukee. Check out this stat. There aren't enough Chinese Americans living in Milwaukee to even fill up the Bradley Center (18,717).
According to the 2003 Census, the last numbers I could get, there were 586,000 people living in Milwaukee. Only 2.9 percent of those residents (15,236 people) were Asian. It's why Yi didn't work out for them and why he might not show up there on Friday. (Update: It's now been confirmed that Yi won't show up). I somehow don't think Midwest Airlines is considering applying for that Milwaukee to Beijing route.
Biggest Marketing Winner: Joakim Noah to Chicago:
Noah is clearly the best personality of the draft. He's very well known from his championship winning college career, he has the famous name and he's unique looking – you have to love that hair and that bow tie. Put that all together with the nation's No. 2 market and you have Noah potentially boosting his marketing payday. One deal he'll immediately cash in on is a shoe deal, as he still hasn't signed with any brand. I asked Noah how he thought Chicago would help out his earning potential and he said this: "Oh, I feel so marketable, you have no idea. I'm so marketable; yes. That's exactly why I wanted to go to Chicago; to be marketable."
But there's no way he can't be marketable given that he clearly had the most entertaining news conference. The highlight? When he mentioned that he hated Bulls general manager John Paxson because of what he did to his childhood favorite Knicks back in the day.
Oden vs. Durant – Off The Court:
