The 2009 NBA draft, headlined by Stephen Curry, James Harden, Blake Griffin, Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holiday and DeMar DeRozan, stands as one of the best in modern NBA history.
One name many believed would be selected higher was Brandon Jennings . Although he was selected with the 10th overall pick by the Milwaukee Bucks , the 6-foot-1 guard had hoped to hear his name much earlier.
Having become the first American to go straight from high school to the EuroLeague — he played for Lottomatica Roma in Italy — Jennings believed that playing with pros would show the NBA teams what he could do. But as he recently recalled, his coach from Europe may have convinced Mike D'Antoni not to draft him earlier.
"My Italian coach over there at the time, my first coach, was cool. My Italian coach was very cool with D'Antoni, right? And he told D'Antoni that I was a head case, I was hard to deal with, and any other stuff," Jennings said on the "Out of the Mud" podcast.
"First of all, I wasn't doing nothing. I was chilling, I'm not playing cool. I'm going to stay workout, do whatever, you know, do what put me in every three. He'll put me in three minutes and come out and do all this stuff. So it was whatever. He was like, 'Don't f — k with the kid like this and that.'"
Jennings had his sights set on New York, believing the New York Knicks were an ideal fit for his game under D'Antoni.
"So my best workout at the draft was the Knicks one, cuz I circled it. I said seven. I said I'm not going past seven," Jennings added . "I said D'Antoni got the best offense for me, he run up and down. I can go in here and do whatever I want to do. I'm not even tripping. So I go in there and I'm killing the workout. I'm winning everything. I'm winning all the ones. So D'Antoni see me, I guess he called the guy. He was like, 'Are you sure? Are you sure he's not like?' Like, didn't go seven."
The contract Jennings signed with Roma guaranteed $1.65 million in net income. After earning the contract with Lottomatica, Under Armor gave him a $2 million contract. In 16 Euroleague games, Jennings averaged 7.6 points in 19.6 minutes per game, shooting 38.7 percent from the field and 26.8 percent from the 3-point range.
The potential was evident right away, and the NBA was the logical next step. The Knicks were a childhood dream for the kid from Compton, but friction with his coach in Europe may have cost him several draft spots.
Jennings had two coaches in the Italian capital that season. Croatian Jasmin Repesa started with the team but was fired following a series of poor results, and halfway through the season, the team was taken over by renowned Italian coach Ferdinando "Nando" Gentile.
An icon of Italian club and national team basketball, a EuroLeague champion and a EuroBasket silver medalist as a player, Gentile held very high standards and leaned more toward domestic players, leaving simply no room for the young Jennings in his vision.
Things didn't turn out badly for Jennings. He put together a fantastic rookie campaign for the Bucks, finishing with 15.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 37.4 percent from deep to place third in the Rookie of the Year race behind Evans and Curry.
As for the Knicks, they drafted Jordan Hill with the eighth pick, a big man who averaged just 7.9 points per game across 409 games and was nowhere near Jennings' level.
It was another questionable decision by the Knicks during a period when the franchise struggled to find its footing. Jennings briefly brought some excitement to Milwaukee, though his time there was short.
Related: "I was paying a guy $2,000 a day" – Deron Williams on trying to save his ankles in Brooklyn
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Nov 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
