On Thursday, just hours before the start of this year’s NBA draft, the league announced that the Milwaukee Bucks were trading their 20 year old Chinese forward Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons to the New Jersey Nets in exchange for former All-Star Richard Jefferson. The trade was the first major player personnel moved initiated by the Bucks new general manager John Hammond, and it may prove to be one of the most disastrous moves in the history of the franchise.

When the Bucks drafted Yi with the sixth overall pick in 2007, the initial belief was that the rising star was not going to sign a contract to play for what is considered a smaller market team. His agents were hoping that he would land in a larger city that featured a greater Chinese American population, but after team owner Senator Herb Kohl and other management officials visited Hong Kong to negotiate the deal, he was signed under contract with Milwaukee. From that moment on, Milwaukee came to be known as the NBA home of one of the top 5 most popular athletes in all of China.

“He’s put Milwaukee on the map in China,” said Peter Beitzel, a representative of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce’s (MMAC’s) China Business Council, when interviewed in May. “People know where we are.”

Now, by giving away this invaluable marketing asset to New Jersey, the management of the Bucks have forsaken their chance to distinguish their brand as a recognizable international commodity.

In today’s globalized world, China has assumed an ever increasing role, pressing the United States and European Union for dominance in the worldwide market. It is the fastest growing economy, and the opportunity was available for Wisconsin businesses to take advantage of the exposure of their local star.

Among the benefits of having a star like Yi wearing the Bucks uniform were the marketing opportunities that were previously unavailable. This past season, many Bucks games were broadcast in China, and fans who tuned in to watch the games on television were treated to a variety of ads that featured both the English and Chinese languages on the rotating courtside billboard along press row. Among the featured sponsors were Fujian Peak Group and Rockwell Automation, whose ads were seen by hundreds of millions of Chinese basketball fans.

In November, the Fujian Peak Group, China’s leading producer of athletic shoes, signed a multi-year marketing partnership with the NBA, increasing its visibility worldwide. Rockwell Automation, an engineering company whose world headquarters are located in Milwaukee, were fortunate to have a huge advertising inroad to China right in their hometown. Rockwell also has an Asia Pacific regional headquarters located in Hong Kong. A recent article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel states that Rockwell entered the Chinese market in 1986, and its business is growing in Asia by 20 percent each year.

Beitzel acknowledges that Yi’s presence drew tremendous attention towards the Wisconsin economy. Companies that did advertise themselves in Chinese at the Bradley Center did so “with the sole intent of getting their name into the China market,” said Beitzel. “That helps us with investors who are thinking, well, maybe we’ll do something in the Midwest, and they would have never thought of coming into Wisconsin, but now they might.”

Milwaukee’s first attempt to bridge the cultural gap between the US and China through basketball came in 2005, when the Bradley Center hosted an exhibition game featuring the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). The game was sponsored by the China Business Council, who openly promoted the game as a goodwill exchange between Wisconsin and Chinese businesses. “That’s the first time a professional basketball team from China, the CBA, played in the United States on an NBA floor,” says Beitzel.

NBA Commissioner David Stern has worked tirelessly to brand the league throughout the world, and players like Lebron James, China’s Yao Ming and France’s Tony Parker have become recognizable worldwide stars and marketing giants. The NBA represents the cultural capital that the United States can consistently deliver to the global economy, and by trading Yi Jianlian, the Bucks have essentially made the statement that they did not want to be a part of this international movement.

In doing so, they have let down the entire state of Wisconsin. The Bucks management decided they could win a few more games next season with their new player, and completely disregarded the great efforts the team exerted a year ago to try and build a bright future for the franchise.