By Nikos Varlas/ info@eurohoops.net
During our stay in Milwaukee, Eurohoops met up with the General Manager of the Milwaukee Bucks, John Hammond. The man who selected Giannis Antetokounmpo at number 15 of the 2013 draft, which has certainly proven to be one of the most… shrewd and inspired choices the Bucks have ever made in their history!
Like many experts have said on the other side of the Atlantic, picking the, then, unknown Greek point-forward in 2013, will possibly turn out to be one of the biggest steals in the history of the draft procedure!
For many in the NBA, Milwaukee has some of the best young players in the entire league, they’re building a very promising body and with the new arena in a few years from now they will be able to challenge the title in the East.
Hammond is the man who has created this plan through his work and decisions.
The next morning after the win over the Los Angeles Lakers and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s first triple double, the Bucks’ GM received us with pleasure in his office in the club’s training center and answered our questions regarding Milwaukee’s… franchise player in the making.
As we were chatting with John Hammond, the moment when Kobe Bryant embraced with the Greek Freak after the end of the game came on the television, and the Bucks’ GM (pictured) didn’t miss the opportunity to… freeze the frame to enjoy the big moment again and again!
Read what John Hammond says about Giannis’s future, the position that suits him best, and what he lacks to be considered a superstar from the age of 21!
– When are you expecting Giannis to start entering the phase when he’ll reach the peak of his career and the most productive basketball that he can play?
“He’s 21 years old, but he’s been playing regularly and with many playing minutes in the league for three years! That means that, on the one side, he can still be described as inexperienced, because he’s very young, but on the other, he’s already gained considerable experience. They say that players start reaching the peak of their performance and of their career when they’ve been playing in the NBA for 6 or 7 seasons. Giannis got in the league when he was 18 years old. So, in his case, we have to look at a player like LeBron, who played straight in the NBA without playing in college. The general rule says that good players reach their peak between 27 and 29. In cases, however, like the ones of LeBron and Giannis, you can expect it at 26. To try to answer more specifically, there is no definite and certain answer to your question (laughs)! Time is what will give the answer…”
– How do you judge the fact that Giannis, when he faces a superstar, often plays amazingly well? Is it a matter of extra motivation?
“On the one side, it’s something positive. From a young age he has proven that he can be competitive and stare right in the eye the best players in this league. On the other side, this is the difference between the good player and the top player. The top player steps on the court every night with the same desire and determination with the aim of dominating the game and defining it. He wants to do it every time, in every game.”
– How do you see Giannis and his future? What do you expect to see from him in 3 or 4 years?
“I’ll tell you this. Giannis, at 21, needs two simple things to become an All Star, from this moment that we’re speaking: to score the open jump shots from 15-16 feet and three-pointers from the corners.”
– In the end, is there a position that we could say suits him best?
“He’s a forward. I said it when we selected Jabari Parker in the draft as well. Many are not aware that Parker is also really good with the ball in his hands and that he can set up and execute plays. It’s very important for us for these two to learn to play really well together. For Giannis, I’ll say the same things I said when they asked me who he is, in the summer of 2013, when we selected him. He’s a guy who knows how to play the game well and he has a good perception, he can see everything on the court. He was this kind of a player since he was young! With a special feel for the game and a good perception. We are very happy that, lately, Giannis has been using these gifts that he has in his games, with very good results for the team.”
– He has already stated twice that he wants to stay with the Milwaukee Bucks for many years. Is it important for the organization to receive this drive and this kind of planning from Giannis?
“It’s one of the most important things… Not just I, but everyone on the team, but also in the city too, are happy when they hear Giannis talk like that and mean everything he says. That he’s not interested in any other prospects, aside from staying here for 20 years to fight for the team and the city, to win a championship with the Milwaukee Bucks. Our fans love to hear these words from Giannis and that’s another reason why he’s become their favorite player.”
– Before the 2013 draft, all the scouts in the NBA were coming to Athens to watch Giannis play in Filathlitikos. But neither then, nor on the night of the draft before his selection, had we heard anything about the Bucks. How… did you do it in the end? How did you end up selecting him?
“We were lucky! I honestly believe that. Many times I hear people saying that, in the case of Antetokounmpo, Hammond saw something that the others didn’t see. Not so. We’re all very good scouts, we all collect the right data and, from there, it’s just a matter of the numbers you pick and which players you can get. I didn’t see anything different from what everyone else saw in Giannis. We were just very lucky to have the number 15. Giannis hadn’t been selected by any other team until we got to 15, and so we got him!”