Wisconsin Prominent in SI Coverage This Week

Sports Illustrated is loaded with Wisconsin ties this week, both in print and on the internet – and we’re not even talking about the first place Brewers. The sports magazine has an extensive cover story about the Hanson Brothers, fictional characters in the cult hockey movies Slap Shot and Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice. The Hansons made the cover of the magazine’s “Where are they Now?” issue, reprising an earlier appearance from the 1977 debut of the film.

In the story we learn that Steve Carlson, one of the three brothers (the others are Jeff Carlson and Dave Hanson) now lives in Kenosha, where he operates a power skating school.

The front page of SI’s on-line edition features a large photograph of Yi Jianlian, the Chinese basketball player chosen by the Milwaukee Bucks in the recent draft. The article includes an interview with Larry Harris, where the Bucks GM explains that like it or not, Yi won’t be traded elsewhere by the team.

Milwaukee could be a good fit for Yi, opines SI columnist Aditi Kinkhabwala, who says we have 48 Chinese restaurants, and extensive trade and community ties with the nation. She quotes Paul Wong, owner of Long Wong’s Chinese American Sports Bar as saying he’ll be happy to feed Yi, and also talks to Ulice Payne, a former basketball player who is head of our city’s China Council, and has an office in China. She also notes that when the Beijing Ducks made the first American visit by a Chinese basketball team in 2005, they selected Milwaukee.

The site also includes a poll about where Yi will play next season. As of this writing, the results were: Milwaukee 45%; China 36% and “Another NBA City” 19%.

Rounding out the local coverage is a photo retrospective of Hank Aaron.

This article was originally published by Milwaukee World.