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ESPN analyst Jay Williams had a flashback Tuesday night when 6-foot 10-inch Nate Ament was standing alongside Adam Silver and towering over the NBA commissioner.
Ament, a one-and-done freshman at the University of Tennessee, had just been selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the No. 13 pick in the 2026 draft.
That choice belonged to the Miami Heat. But it was part of a trade package that was sent to Milwaukee in the mega deal for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis.
Some have questioned Ament’s lack of bulk and strength. His body hasn’t matured yet. He’s young. He’s 19. He’s rail-thin. He’s built like a 3-iron. All the size clichés.
On stage, Ament dwarfed Silver.
Truth is, Silver is not undersized either. He’s 6-3 and much taller than his predecessor, the late David Stern, who was generously listed at 5-9.
Now cue Williams, the second overall pick in the 2002 draft, and his flashback to a first-round moment 13 years ago when the Bucks took Antetokounmpo with the 15th pick.
The stage was the same: the Barclays Center in Brookyln, New York, the site of the draft since 2013 with the exception of 2020 when it was held virtually because of COVID.
There is a classic photo from ‘13 of the 6-9 Antetokounmpo standing alongside Stern, who was presiding over his final draft as the NBA commissioner.
Antetokounmpo was 18 and listed at 196 pounds. He looked lighter. Skinny. Rail-thin. Built like a 3-iron. He dwarfed Stern. Hence the flashback for Williams, and others.
Giannis Antetokounmpo playing during a game against the Washington Wizards in 2014, the year after he was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks. (Photo license)
PHOTO BY KEITH ALLISON
Not that Williams, or anybody else, was even remotely suggesting that Ament would ever rise to the superstar level of the Greek Freak. It was just the timing of it all, the visual.
In case you forgot…
Not everybody was sold on Milwaukee general manager John Hammond’s gamble with Antetokounmpo, who was averaging less than 10 points in a second-tier Greek league.
“There were safer picks on the board for us,” Hammond admitted to a mostly skeptical media on his choice. “But nothing with this kind of upside, nothing close to this.
“That’s the real key component of what we have here. How are we going to get (a foundational player), who’s our next All-Star?
“I don’t want to put that on the kid’s shoulders. But I think he has the skill set to become that if it all falls together for him.”
It did all fall together for Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. Until it began to fall apart over the last three seasons of his transcendent career in Milwaukee.
It was quite a ride punctuated by the 2021 NBA championship, the first in 50 years for the Bucks, who got 50 points from Antetokounmpo in the title-clinching win.
Antetokounmpo was the MVP of the finals after averaging 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds, and five assists in the six-game series against the Phoenix Suns.
Quite a ride, indeed, for 13 years. And quite a fall. For many, it was a bittersweet ending. Maybe bitter is too strong of a word. It was more disappointing than anything else.
But overdue.
“Communication breakdowns and conflicting actions from both (Giannis) Antetokounmpo and team leadership … led to a mutual loss of faith,” reported Milwaukee Journal Sentinel beat writer Jim Owczarski. (Photo license)
PHOTO BY ERIK DROST
Some NBA pundits believe the Bucks waited too long and should have traded him a year earlier. It might have avoided some of the Antetokounmpo fatigue that began to set in.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Jim Owczarski did a masterful job constructing a timeline to chronicle the relationship between Antetokounmpo and the Bucks.
Owczarski, the beat reporter, cited, “Communication breakdowns and conflicting actions from both Antetokounmpo and team leadership that led to a mutual loss of faith.”
He also pointed out, “A series of coaching hires, including Adrian Griffin and Doc Rivers, failed to establish trust and a clear identity for the team.”
Griffin and Rivers followed Mike Budenholzer who coached the Bucks to the NBA crown. But he was fired two years later. He may have lost the locker room. Or Giannis.
Wrote Owczarski, “Key decisions, such as firing coach Mike Budenholzer and trading Jrue Holiday for Damian Lillard, fractured the team’s winning culture.”
There was plenty of blame to go around.
The fall was destined.
And the trade inevitable.
“This started a year ago when Giannis made a very direct request with his agent Alex Saratsis that the time had come to move on,” said ESPN senior insider Shams Charania.
Saratsis is also the agent of Miami’s Bam Adebayo.
“Everyone in Milwaukee ownership on down had to align in the direction of the organization …the Bucks were on the clock.”
To get Antetokounmpo and Portis, the Heat gave up Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jamie Jaquez, Kasparas Jakucionis, three first-round picks, one pick swap, one second-rounder.
The 26-year-old Herro needs no introduction. He’s a native Cheesehead who grew up in Greenfield, a Milwaukee suburb, 20 minutes from the Fiserv Forum.
Herro attended Whitnall High School. Committed to the University of Wisconsin. Decommitted and went to Kentucky. Played one-year and entered the 2019 NBA draft.
Miami took Herro with the 13th overall pick. The 6-5 guard has averaged over 20 points in five of his seven years. Was Sixth Man of the Year (2022) and All-Star (2025).
Wisconsin native Tyler Herro decommitted from the Badgers to play at Kentucky. He returns to his home state to play for the Milwaukee Bucks as part of the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade with Milwaukee. (Photo license)
PHOTO BY THOMAS SAVOJA
And he may never play in Milwaukee. Herro will be a free agent after the 2026-27 season and there has been early speculation that he may be moved to another team.
Everything is fluid with the Bucks, who are coming off a miserable 32-50 season and haven’t won a first-round playoff series over the past four seasons.
Draft assets are in demand.
ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst shared his perspective.
“The future of the Bucks organization and the outcome of the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade was probably decided (Tuesday) with the picks that they made.
“Those are the cornerstones that they are going to build around. The players that they got from Miami are going to be good guys who are going to fill in the gaps.
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“They could have gone with (Boston’s) Jaylen Brown and immediately had a star player. And they thought about this for weeks. What should we do?
“Should we try to build through young players in the draft? Or should we go with a known quantity? They chose young players in the draft.
“So how they come out of the development process is how we’re going to find out how they’re going to be remembered for making this big Giannis trade.”
ESPN analyst Andraya Carter likes Milwaukee’s direction.
“We can all name teams that have gone into a win-all mode and brought in a superstar and tried to build quickly and it hasn’t always worked out,” Carter said.
“I think Milwaukee has taken the approach similar to Oklahoma City. They get young guys and they build slowly, and I appreciate that.”
With their own lottery pick, No. 10 overall, the Bucks grabbed Arizona guard Brayden Burries, 20, the leading scorer on the Wildcats’ 2026 Final Four team.
Unlike Ament, the 6-4, 215-pound Burries looks physically ready to contribute immediately. ESPN front office insider Bobby Marks called him, “The Silent Assassin.”
“He’s a man of few words,” Marks said. “But he’s got some toughness…”
In Arizona’s comeback win at BYU, Burries had a career-high 29 points and a game-saving block in the closing seconds. “He impacts winning,” said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas.
Former Arizona Wildcats player Brayden Burries, right, was the Bucks’ selection at No. 10 in the NBA draft. (Photo license)
PHOTO BY MGoBlog
Milwaukee’s new head coach Taylor Jenkins and general manager Jon Horst appeared with Burries and Ament at Thursday’s introductory media conference.
Ament has left a favorable impression on Bilas, who called him a “top 10 talent” and a “skilled, graceful athlete” who will get stronger with time and grow into his lanky frame.
Yet patience is in short supply.
The jury is out on Milwaukee’s revamped ownership team, namely co-owner Jimmy Haslam, who’s also the owner of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.
Within 21 days, the Browns traded defensive end Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams and the Bucks sent Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat. Haslam’s imminent legacy?
In describing Burries, Bilas said, “He’s got no memory. Once he does something, it’s in his rearview mirror, he doesn’t think about it. He’s on to the next thing.”
Although it might be the ideal metaphor in Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo was bigger than life as depicted by that 54-foot-tall mural of him on the façade of a downtown building.
“They had a generational player, and they invested everything into maximizing that,” Windhorst rationalized. “OK, that window is over. Now we have a new era.”
The Bucks are on to the next thing.
However bittersweet.