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Giannis Antetokounmpo will try to make life miserable for Danny Ainge, even if Ainge is big enough to appreciate the success of an NBA superstar.
The Boston Celtics will be going up against one of the best teams in the league at the moment, the Milwaukee Bucks. They will collide in the Eastern Conference semifinals which begin Sunday.
The Bucks are led by one of the most unstoppable players in the league, MVP front-runner Giannis Antetokounmpo. Despite playing only six years in the NBA, the Greek Freak has already proven himself as one of the best, if not the best, players in the world. The Celtics will need to find a way to somehow contain him and make him work for every shot.
Things would've been easier if the Celtics had decided to draft him in 2013.
Yup, you heard it right. Boston had a chance to draft him, but passed.
Back in 2013, the Celtics owned the 16th overall pick, and the Bucks were just one spot ahead of them in the draft order. Boston decided to trade with the Dallas Mavericks for the rights to the 13th overall pick. General manager Danny Ainge had a shot at Giannis, but he decided to select Kelly Olynyk instead.
In an interview with Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald, Ainge was asked if drafting Antetokounmpo in 2013 crossed his mind.
“Sure, I mean, I second-guess a lot of guys. But, yeah, based on the information I had at the time of the draft, I don’t really second-guess.
It wasn't too long before he started to realize that he might have made a mistake.
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“But based on the information from when I first saw him in the summer league, I absolutely started second-guessing,” Ainge added through a chuckle, his eyes widening. “Like, who is that kid right there?”
Ainge added that he and the rest of his staff really liked Giannis, but they thought he'd need a long time to develop. So they decided to go for Olynyk, a big man with a more polished game.
“We all liked him. All of us had seen him. I think I saw him in maybe January, but by the time that he was drafted that same year, he was I think two or three inches taller and maybe 10 or 15 pounds heavier. And he was even bigger the year after Milwaukee drafted him. But he was just a really skinny kid that had no outside game, and he looked like a kid that just needed a long time to develop.
Well, Giannis developed faster than the Celtics were able to resolve their team chemistry problems this season.
What's done is done. Ainge is happy for what Antetokounmpo was able to do in the league.
“I think the amazing thing with him was how quickly he developed, and part of that was his height and strength and how much bigger he got so fast. I think that enabled him to be good right away in the NBA. In his rookie year and his second year, you could see, wow, this kid is going to be really, really good.”
Oh, the players that got away — right, Boston?
