After acquiring a bevy of young players and the veteran trio of Roy Hibbert, Brandon Bass, and Lou Williams during the free-agency period, the Los Angeles Lakers have also tried to persuade former NBA player Yi Jianlian to play for them this coming season, but the Chinese basketball superstar was reportedly uninterested.

Like Us on Facebook

Fansided indicated that the Lakers' reputation for striking out on targeted players had been growing and growing. Just this summer, the team was unsuccessful in luring top caliber talents to join their fray, such as Marc Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMarcus Cousins, DeAndre Jordan, Greg Monroe, Kevin Love, and Jimmy Butler.

Even role players like Ty Lawson, Andre Miller, Robin Lopez, JaVale McGee, and Kevin Seraphim were all rumored to have been enticed by the Lakers this summer as well, but they ended up accepting offers from other teams.

Last year, superstars LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony would not even consider looking at any Lakers' offer placed in front of them.

The case of Yi somewhat proved that even free agents who had been out of the NBA for so long are also not interested in playing for the Hollywood squad and join Kobe Bryant's quest for a final ring in what is allegedly his final season in the league.

Indeed, gone were the days when the Lakers are the number one destination of superstar free agents or even average ones wanting to boost their middling careers.

Yi played five seasons in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks, New Jersey Nets, Washington Wizards, and Dallas Mavericks from 2007 to 2012. His last stop was in Dallas where he averaged only 2.6 points and 1.6 rebounds per game due to playing time issues.

The 6th overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft played his best season with the Nets in lockout-marred 2009-2010 averaging 12.0 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks in 31.8 minutes per game. He also started 51 of the 52 games he played that season.

Early in April this year, then Wizards guard Will Bynum said through the Washington Post that Yi "can definitely be a force" in the NBA if he so decides to make a comeback.

Yi and Bynum were teammates for three months earlier this year for the Guangdong Southern Tigers and so he had a first-hand experience on how the 27-year-old had supposedly improved his game and gotten more physical at it.

Yi averaged 27.7 points and 10.9 in the CBA last season, as per Yard Barker, but there were no confirmed reports that he was actually pursuing a return to the NBA.

TagsNBA 2015, NBA news, NBA News 2015, NBA rumors, NBA Rumors 2015, Los Angeles Lakers