Yi Jianlian came into the NBA with a ton of hype. He was supposed to be the next big Chinese superstar after Yao Ming, and was selected No. 6 overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2007. However, he spent a mostly underwhelming five-year career in the NBA before going back to China.

For some, Yi’s lasting legacy in the league was the guy who showed off his skills in one of his pre-draft workouts by playing against an empty chair. “Chairman Yi” became a running joke of popular sportswriter Bill Simmons for many years.

Yi Jianlian
Getty Images

But according to Matt Giles in his in-depth piece on Deadspin, that chair workout didn’t really happen:

The thing is, the chair workout almost certainly never happened, which means that the video almost certainly never existed. I’ve spoken with numerous scouts, execs, players, trainers, and media members, and not one remembers ever actually seeing the clip. I’ve obtained the broadcast-once, now-lost TV program in which the chair workout was allegedly aired, and it’s not there. No matter how sure you are you’ve seen the clip, you haven’t.

Through Giles’ investigation, he explains that the “chair” is merely the term for a one-on-zero workout where the player doesn’t go against anyone.

Celtics GM Danny Ainge had referred to “chair” in one of his interviews regarding Yi and a workout, but countless accounts from people in the know refuted any claim of a chair.

yi jianlian
The Associated Press

Simmons, who claims to have seen the clip of Yi and the chair on an ESPN draft special, declined to comment for the story. The aforementioned draft special also had no footage of any chair.

After a decade’s worth of misinformation, one of the NBA’s more apocryphal stories has been comprehensively debunked. So now, Yi Jianlian should be remembered as a run-of-the-mill failed top prospect as opposed to the one who became a top prospect with the help of a chair.