On the NBA won't let Yi to duck Milwaukee because it is a small market

A series of post in this thread on LakersGround.net on 8/28/07.

I wrote about the Yi situation:

The NBA isn't going to let a draft pick decide to not report to a team that drafted him because it is in too small of a market. Otherwise, the small market teams are doomed to mediocrity.

jbjb replied:

Ever hear of Danny Ferry?

I countered:

Danny Ferry didn't want to go to the Clippers because LA is a small market.

LakerSanity added to jbjb's:

Or Steve Francis?

I said back:

It's not like Danny Ferry got off light. He had to go to Europe for a while. The NBA made some changes to the CBA to make it much harder to do something similar.

I don't remember why Steve Francis didn't want to go to Vancouver. Wikipedia says, "He also publicly announced that he did not want to play for the Grizzlies, citing the distance from his Maryland home, taxes, endorsements, and God's will." Vancouver had some unique issues as a franchise, so I don't think Stern would be willing to twist arms as hard for them. The team left Vancouver less than 2 seasons later.