Unseen Footage Of The Raptors Desperately Trying To Trade Up For Giannis In The 2013 Draft 

It’s crazy how often Masai is right. The raptors need to keep this man

He was one of the only guys who physically went to Athens to scout him

When everybody wanted Jalen Suggs, he went with Scottie Barnes who just won the Rookie of the year. Masai's eye for talent is top notch 👏

As a Bucks fan, I'm totally happy with the results. Joking aside, I was perplexed when the Bucks took Giannis. Never heard a peep about him. Now my whole family loves him! Giannis met with my son through the Make a Wish program. Gifted him shoes while the Bucks signed my son to a 1 day contract. I owe Giannis, TA, and the while organization the biggest hug an appreciative father can give!

I actually think Masai is a genius. Trying to draft Giannis when most people thought he was a joke. Trading for Kawhi when most people thought it was a dumb 1 year rental. Drafting Barnes when everyone said Suggs was better.

Impressive. Idk how many people in the know felt this way, but I can say as a fan he was COMPLETELY off the radar for me that year. I think to have openly wanted to pick this man in the lottery shows greatness in this gm. Wow.

Derozan, lowry and giannis in the early raptors 😳😳. What could have been, DeRozan would've got that ring like he deserved

Masai is a visionary!!!! Thats our Boss In Masai we Trust

You can tell his heart sank when he said “they are pick giannis”

If you’re wondering who they whould wind up picking, NO ONE. They didn’t have a pick that year. Had to focus on signing and/or trading

They should’ve been more “desperate.”

Giannis growing like 3" after draft helped out alot too. He was almost 6'9" on draft day, today hes a legit seven footer with a crazy wingspan.

Giannis may never have become what we see today if he went down a different path. One key aspect was jason kidd making giannis run point instead of playing like a typical big man, and being patient with him in that role

Damn, bucks fan coming in peace. That is actually wild how close it was. I heard some stuff about the Hawks being very interested for him. Had no idea about this. Insane how only a few teams just knew. History coulda changed so much. Happy for yall getting that ring tho.

That must suck. To know someone is going to be great, do everything in your power to get them on your team, but simply because of draft seeding, you can only watch them get drafted by another team and then you have to watch them dominate the league

Since their inception, the raptors have an amazing track record of picking out top talent in the draft. So many RoYs and big time players drafted by them without even having the first pick. The problem is most never want to stay. Derozen was the only one.

Imagine if we had Giannis from the start

Long time ago, back in 2013, I won a prize to see the Raptors play their last regular season game in Toronto (against Boston). Courtside seats, two signed jerseys. Bryan Colangelo was still president. I had an opportunity to take photos with him and have a conversation. I asked him if there was anyone the Raptors were looking at in the draft. He responded. They were looking at a Greek player, likely a project, but tremendous potential. The player may be outside our reach. I learned later that player was likely Giannis. Colangelo was demoted that same summer and eventually left the organization of course. That conversation stuck.

Meanwhile the Cavs were giving themselves high fives for drafting Anthony Bennett 🤦

I could watch this sort of thing all day. Thanks for the insight!

1:07 8 year old me to my phone after downloading a fake beer drinking app.

I mean if the raptors got him yes we would have developed him but he would’ve been a 3rd option to Derozan and Lowry where as Bucks were rebuilding with no stars and eventually led him to be the star of his team because of the vacant spot of the first option on the bucks

He said “no problem” after hanging up the phone. But in reality, it was a big peoblem.

This behind the scenes content is better than sports movies

We could have had a dynasty man. Just goes to show how great Masai has been for the Raptors. He deserves a statue

The timberwolves did the right thing by trading down from pick #9 and got pick #14 and #21 in a "weak" 2013 draft class. They chose the wrong forward and center with those two picks tho. They picked Shabazz Muhammad (one pick above Giannis) and Gorgui Dieng (a solid center but Gobert was still available). But Gobert and Giannis were very raw tho so I understood the decision not to draft a foreigner. With so many talented international players now, I hope more teams will draft those foreigners

I'm highly impressed by the intuition! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Great footage!

We need a Netflix documentary of Sam Presti on draft day over the next few years.

must have felt great when Toronto pulled the comeback from 0-2 against the Bucks in 2019.

If I ever feel that the raptor are making the wrong decisions, I always goes to this video. Masai has a vision

Giannis would have been a better outside shooter now if Toronto got him. Toronto’s player development team are probably the best in the league. Giannis has a good outside shot back when he was a rookie but sadly Milwaukee failed to develop it and even messed it up.

This guy is a straight genius. Not just because of his vision. But how he plays the game on AND off the court. He chooses his words VERY carefully and he always lets his actions speak over his words. Legend. And btw i just farted

That's why he picked Bruno Caboclo the following year. With his size and length, Bruno looked like the next Giannis Antetokounmpo or Kevin Durant. Too bad didn't worked out for Bruno, but at least we got that "2 Years Away From Being 2 Years Away" phrase.

This guy is amazing. Great vision for players

Its crazy how the algorithm works, this was at 300k views 2 days ago

Made that 4th pick to get Scottie Counted is unbelievable Mr. President, you made him ROY cause of how hard he works, our Coach is not going any where, we will come back better next year, what an steal that is, Malacai is gonna develop a lot stronger and he knows it, let's keep it going, let's go Raptors!

Couldn't have tried that hard, the celtics traded into the spot before giannis to get kelly olynyk

As soon as I saw Giannis playing in the first few years, I was telling people about him and how fun he was to watch. Never dreamed he would get to the level he is now

thought it was interesting too that the raptors could have had the 12th pick in this draft and got Giannis before milwaukee, but they traded it to houston for lowry the year before. kyle a certified toronto legend though so it works out (sorta)

Masai always had the vision man😨

Crazy to see Giannis journey so far. During his rookie szn ik he was going to be special and have been a fan ever since. He will go down as one of the goats no debate about it.

the mavs GM at the time told mark cuban he’d bet his entire career on Giannis. Cuban refused and drafted tyler zeller and immediately traded him to keep cap space open for dwight fruit fly howard. we got luka so i guess it worked out but man…. a misfire like letting nash walk to sign Erick Dampier.. like refusing to resign brunson for 4y $55M TWICE and watching him walk for NYC…

He is such a quality GM. I wish my Knicks would've made a serious push to get him. I always believe major trades should be pulled off in draft night just sets your organization up nicely.

1:02 this is the face of a man who knows this young player is gonna cook the league and it's not with his team

Considering the Raptors coaching staff aswell you've gotta think that Giannis's progression would have been accelerated by atleast a season. Imagine the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals where the Raptors had a 2017/2018 Giannis aswell

Masai is so calm and collected. Love it.

There is obvious bias toward American prospects. It's funny how everyone says Giannis came out of nowhere, but the ones who took the time to actually scout him could see it. Not just the Bucks and the Raptors, the Hawks tried to draft him as well. Maybe no one could have foreseen Giannis would be an all time great, but several people saw the potential.

Raptors lowkey good asf at finding good prospects

At least they got to do what they've envisioned then this year. A lineup full of lengthy versatile wing players.

I know this is about Masai and Giannis...but I also noticed that Bobby Webster introduces himself to Larry T. Also, he knows is draft pick protection rules - the finer details that make a front office effective.

He has a good eye for the game, a true basketball visionary

Wow this is intense.

He was right about Giannis and was right about Steven Adams being drafted at 12th. Genius!!

I read about him on BR before the draft, but the writer wasn't sure how he'd turn out. So when he went that low it wasn't much of a surprise. Maybe he got my attention also because I'm Nigerian.

Wish i could load up my game saves from 2k 15-18. I was banking on Giannis becoming a star every Good Morning mode lol

Thats jay-z before he met beyonce

If Giannis was with Toronto this whole time, he would have a jumper.

So cool to see.

at this point its a tradition to watch this every off season

Toronto is a beautiful city Giannis

Thank God Giannis came to Milwaukee, our city needed a hero desperately

I would live a drive to survive type series around the draft

Crazy because back in 2014 I played with Giannis in 2k when you can play career mode with actual players , and Gianni’s was like a 63 and I was like this dude going to be a problem because I boosted his stats to 90

1:03 wow weird to think Steven Adams was in the same draft as Gianni

I hope Giannis had watched this. Talk about a team/GM trying to do anything to trade for you and you are not really considered as lottery pick. . Bucks picked them because he fell on their lap. Big difference. If raptors did get him at that time, he would have 2 rings now. '19 and '20 and raptors wouldnt be indebted to Kawhi. Giannis, lowry, derozan,vanvleet, siakam, ibaka, gasol,powell powered team is good enough to win '19 over GSW and '20 over lakers.

I remembered watching him Luka Frank play overseas i was tellin people he gonna win before 25 MVPS DPoY & hopefully a ring thankfully so far so good

mesai is a god at drafting man, he saw something in barnes over suggs too

In reality development plays a HUGE part in all of these “Sleeper superstars” it would never work out the exact same. The connection between a player and trainer can unlock potential, environment/city etc. too many factors in what ifs.

They had the 12th pick that year but traded it was already traded for Kyle Lowry

I envy ppl who love their job Great man

Masai rocking that chair like it's no one else business.

Ujuri is the emotion guy and Bobby is the numbers guy. Good duo.

Get this guy a real rocking chair

I remember being a fan of him when he got drafted just because I liked his name 😂😂

I think it's crazy that teams were so firm on staying with their pick in what was considered a weak draft class even at the time.

Giannis wasn't a steal at all. He was a Longshot. He was a 6'7 guard who was slow, couldn't shoot, and skinny. Nobody thought he would do anything. And it took him like 4 years of training to be any good. But all credit to him now he is 7 foot and the best player in the nba in my opinion. I think he passed lebron and Durant.

Its all good . We gonna find the next Giannis.

nah giannis going to a small franchise like milwaukee was destiny. and he had the heart to stay to win that city a chip. nothin but respect fr.

It’s crazy to see how high in them he was, better eye for talent than most. If he could go back in time today he probably would’ve given up whatever for him.

I love Masisi Ujiri this dude has some voodoo powers or something well he is african this men knows how to draft players

If he's the guy. You trade the house for him. Don't be stingy.

Lowry, DeRozan, and Antetokounmpo is a crazy what if

This almost felt like a scene from a movie.

Where can we watch the entire episode?

That would be a different Giannis. His development under Kidd that focused on ball handling and playmaking early on is the foundation of what he is today. The Raptors would have put him in the center or power forward position learning skill traditional to those roles.

Damn I don’t normally hold the suits of the NBA to such high esteem, but this man truly knows the game of basketball.

Just saw this for the first time. This is awesome. Masai is fantastic. Crazy world if they would've gotten Giannis

raptors in 2021 baby

They won a ring so it all worked out for the best.

I've met Masai and ill tell you one thing, he's a great thinker!

Giannis would of stayed too. Loyal, talented and hard working. A rare special player

jesus christ who knows if it all ends up the same, but imagine the raptors with giannis... and what if kawhi still goes holy shit

Masai is the Quintessence of a BOSS!!!💪💯 I SALUTE THAT BROTHER!

Masai judgement is insane he made the raptors beyond good

One of the best GMs.

A black man…… soo much respect for him

Nba teams know not to do a deal with the raptors 😂

Nuggets fan here (where Ujiri started as a GM). Losing Ujiri still stings, and I can only feel happy for Toronto fans. By the time Ujiri retires, he goes down as one of the greatest GMs in history.

Masai definitely can see the future cuz how tf does he allways chooses the right player??