Subtitles section Play video
-
in 2013 MBA draft and annual assemblage and write a passage for the world's best basketball prospects.
-
Welcome to the 2013 NBA draft.
-
For the final time in his historic tenure, David Stern lorded over the evening ceremony.
-
Before walking onto the stage, Stern stood with the European teenager and patiently practice the pronunciation of his name.
-
Yanis.
-
Ditto gumbo.
-
They call Yanis attendant Campo simply the greatest draft story ever told from the watch pod.
-
This is the honest draft.
-
Three.
-
MBA's 30 teams often spend several years evaluating young players before they ever become eligible to enter the league's draft.
-
Late in 2012, front offices began toe learn of the existence of Yannis Lieutenant coupon.
-
I could remember the day extremely clearly because at that time Jeff Weltman was working with me in Milwaukee and I remember Jeff saying, Hey, John, there's a young player in Athens that's really gathering a lot of attention right now.
-
We should probably go see him.
-
You heard his name and there wasn't much film.
-
What you could find was really grainy, but was certainly someone that was intriguing.
-
I was improving.
-
I was getting I was getting better.
-
I would always wanted to play.
-
Maybe.
-
Would you get nervous when they would tell you there were NBA scouts?
-
Executives in the stands?
-
Yeah, the first time I was nervous.
-
Second time I was nervous.
-
Then I was like, Okay, this is what it is.
-
I'm just gonna keep doing my thing.
-
Yeah, me, too.
-
The kid walks out.
-
It's like, Wow, he's bigger than you realize and how big his hands are.
-
Wow, like stroke doesn't look that bad.
-
I got a phone call and they called me and said, We have the next Magic Johnson.
-
As the draft approached through Atlanta Hawks became increasingly obsessive in clandestine and the pursuit of Yannas.
-
The Hawks committed to choosing a 10 a Koopa with their first available pick on draft night, and on Janice's trip to New York, there would be a stop.
-
Atlanta and the Hawks didn't want anyone in the world to know.
-
They told me to go by myself like, No, no way I'm going with my brother.
-
He walked into the arena was a dark on the joy that he had and the excitement.
-
The energy that he walked in there with was like, you know.
-
Wow, this is gonna be my life.
-
I'm gonna play in places like this.
-
I'm gonna be here, living in America, playing in the best league in the world.
-
His eyes were almost water.
-
The visit couldn't have gone any better.
-
Onley One question remains Would Yanis attendant Coop Oh, make it to the Atlanta Hawks on draft night.
-
Atlanta owned two picks behind Milwaukee at 15 with the first pick, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
-
Select Anthony Bennett.
-
Victor Oladipo, Nerlens Noel.
-
He kept falling and looked like it was gonna work out and get to us.
-
Trey Burke, Steven Adams.
-
Way heard early on when Milwaukee was on the clock.
-
That that's where that around take and didn't want to believe it with the 15th pick is maybe, you know this is it.
-
This is it.
-
The Milwaukee Bucks select.
-
I'm like, No, it is until I hear my name.
-
You know, Yannas.
-
Ditto gumbo.
-
Everything is like slow motion walking down the stairs.
-
And I'm like, That's the moment my life changed.
-
The whole room just was flat, including me.
-
The emotion and the energy out in that room was crushed.
-
Yeah, for more on this Let's welcome in ESPN.
-
Senior MBA insider Adrian Ward Janowski.
-
His three part Siris on Janice's rise to prominence is available now on his podcast.
-
The Woes pod.
-
Adrian, What made Yannis is selection of 15 in the 2013 draft so unusual?
-
Well, consider the fact that in late June, when he, uh, is in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn 7.5 months earlier, there wasn't a team in the n b A who had ever heard of him.
-
He went from being completely off the global map to all of a sudden on the brink of the N b A lottery.
-
And the process leading up, uh, in those months is just one of the most unique, mysterious, enigmatic.
-
And, you know, we take the listener through that process.
-
Remember, this was a historically weak draft.
-
When you look back, the number one overall pick in this draft, Anthony Bennett in Cleveland and basketball fans remember how that turned out.
-
Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.