On Thursday night the Milwaukee Bucks picked Thon Maker 10th overall in the NBA Draft. Maker was born in South Sudan.Mike Stobe/Getty Images
There's never been a top NBA draft pick quite like Thon Maker.
He's defied all conventions. He's raw, seven feet tall and 19 years old. He fled South Sudan as a boy for Australia. Then, guided by a basketball scout, he attended prep schools in the United States before the unprecedented decision to leave the U.S. for high-school basketball in Canada. He eschewed college hoops for another rare path, a jump directly to the National Basketball Association a year after high school.
Maker was dubbed the biggest mystery of Thursday night's NBA draft. His age was anonymously questioned. Several predictions figured Maker would go later in the first round. One prominent forecast put him in the second round.
And then: No. 10, chosen by the Milwaukee Bucks. "One of the most befuddling [picks] in recent memory," Fox Sports declared.
As jarring, or foolish, as it seemed, how Maker became a Buck becomes clear when one considers a confluence of factors. First, there's the type of team Milwaukee is building. There's the contrarian mindset of the Wall Street hedge-fund tycoons who bought the Bucks in 2014 and the instinct for unorthodox moves long held by the team's veteran general manager. Finally, few knew of the tie between Milwaukee and the small Ontario town of Mono.
Maker is a gamble but the NBA draft is a gamble. It's a bet on potential. And this year, the search was more global than ever. A record 26 players, out of 60 drafted, came from outside the United States, including half of the 14 lottery picks.
"We wanted to pick the best player [available] and also the player with the greatest upside," said Bucks GM John Hammond on Thursday night. "And that was the pick we made."
Maker's story has been about upside since mix tapes advertising his combination of ability and size emerged in 2014. He was at a school in Virginia, brought there by scout-turned-guardian Ed Smith. A connection with Canada was made by Larry Blunt, a Virginian who knew Smith. Blunt was coaching at Athlete Institute in Mono, near Orangeville, north of Toronto.
At Athlete Institute, Maker's game and body improved. His slight frame bulked up by about 25 pounds of muscle to around 220 pounds. He consumed "an inordinate amount of calories," Blunt said.
"He really changed his body," he said. "It enhanced his game."
There were lows. At the 2015 Nike Hoop Summit, the elite high-school all-star game, Maker didn't play well. Maker and Smith decided their best move was to avoid college and instead spend a post-graduate year at Athlete Institute to squeeze around an NBA draft rule.
On draft day, several tweets questioned Maker's age, citing anonymous sources. The only relevance of age is if he was in his early 20s, and not 19, his upside would be lower. "We're comfortable with who he is and what he is," Hammond said. Maker joked that he should have brought his mom to the draft.
Maker knows exactly how he fits with the Bucks, a team that has players with a lot of so-called length – long arms, a great physical asset on defence. It starts with Giannis Antetokounmpo, a 21-year-old Greek player who was a surprise No. 15 pick in 2013, and now one of the best players from that draft.
"It's going to be scary," said Maker of the Bucks in the future.
Antetokounmpo is one example of Hammond's reaches. Another was Brandon Jennings, seven years ago, who skipped college and played pro for a year in Italy before Hammond chose him, like Maker, at No. 10. Jennings played well but later was traded.
Hammond said the "blueprint" to make Maker into an NBA player has been forged by the work that underpinned Antetokounmpo's rise. Hammond was impressed by Maker's workout for the team last week: "He knows how to work."
Hammond has backing to think differently. The Bucks are owned by Wes Edens of Fortress Investment Group and Marc Lasry of Avenue Capital Group, who made their fortunes on outsized bets.
Finally, there's the little-known thread between Milwaukee and Mono.
Tyler Ennis, from the Toronto area, is a second-year guard on the Bucks, who played a lot, and well, late this past season. Ennis's dad is Tony McIntyre, director of operations at Athlete Institute. Ennis's agent is Maker's agent, Mike George. George was also the co-founder, with McIntyre, of the club team CIA Bounce.
"If the Bucks already trust Tony and Tyler, and they ask about Thon, it holds that much more weight," said Jesse Tipping, president of Athlete Institute.
When Ennis would go home, he'd visit Athlete Institute. There were serious scrimmages with various alumni and friends. Maker played well.
"If the walls could talk," Tipping said. "Thon's played a lot of high-level basketball that people haven't reported on."