MILWAUKEE -- We might as well get the intern thing out of the way at the top. In officially opening their stunning downtown practice and training facility Thursday, more than a dozen people were seated on the makeshift stage set up on the shiny courts.

Let’s just say, if you’d ask a casual visitor to pick out the Milwaukee Bucks’ new general manager, you probably would have been waiting a while. If, on the other hand, you asked “Which one is the intern?” your guest almost instantly would have pointed at Jon Horst.

Nope, he’s the Bucks’ new 34-year-old GM.

The NBA franchise that made history 45 years ago, when it tabbed Wayne Embry to be the first black general manager in professional sports now employs the youngest GM in this league.

Horst was hired in June, landing the job as what some saw as a compromise candidate. John Hammond, the Bucks’ GM since 2008, left in May for the same post with Orlando. Justin Zanik, hired by Milwaukee 11 months earlier as Hammond’s presumed successor, didn’t get -- when push came to shove -- unanimous approval from the Bucks tri-owners, Wes Eden, Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan. Neither did several other subsequent candidates when the search was extended.

When the smoke cleared, the survivor was Horst, the Bucks’ director of basketball operations since 2008, when he moved from Detroit as a Hammond and Joe Dumars protégé.

“Jon’s extremely bright, a high character person who stands for what he believes in, and he has a great knowledge of this business at a young age,” Hammond said last week. “You think about how young Jon is, but he’s never done anything else in this workaday world except the NBA. He’s very deserving of the opportunity and I expect him to do extremely well.”

Horst already has fleshed out the basketball department to his liking -- with the exception of hiring an experienced hand as assistant GM -- and set up photos of his wife Mia and kids Sophie and Zeke on a corner table of his office. He’s been with the team for a while but not in this capacity, so everything seemed fresh as he talked with NBA.com at the spanking new facility, overlooking the spanking new (one year from now) arena:

NBA.com: So much newness here in Milwaukee. And that includes you. How ready are you for this position?

Jon Horst: The basketball stuff, the team-building, the daily interactions with teams, agents and players, all of that stuff, is things I’ve done for over a decade now. So, that’s easy to get my arms around. The media piece, just the other pieces of the job that people don’t realize -- managing staff, the meetings -- that’s a learning process. But I’m moving along.

NBA.com: Has your background familiarized you with the many things you’ll have to do in this job?

JH: I feel extremely prepared. This is something I thought about and have been planning for a long time. I was blessed to have the opportunity for the better part of a decade with this franchise, and in my time in Detroit, to be involved in high-level decision-making and roster building every step of the way: coaching staff hires, player transactions, trades, free agents, draft, scouting opportunities, being involved with the analytics staff. John [Hammond] was tremendous in allowing me to do that and have real input and say into those areas.

NBA.com: I’ve seen people in this league surround themselves with staffers, none of whom ever could be seen as a threat to the person who hired them. But Joe Dumars and Hammond essentially were generous enough to train a next-generation replacement. What do you make of that?

JH: That comes from treating people the right way and respecting their abilities. And also, having confidence and self-awareness, trusting people around you. The best way to success that I learned from John and Joe and others is to surround yourself with great people, experts in different areas. Experts in scouting, experts in cap management. And not being afraid that any of those people are threats to your job but instead looking at them as assets to your organization in building toward what we all want, and that’s to win championships. If we do that, we’ll all have success at some level.

NBA.com: Where would you say this Bucks team is at, as far as the next step from last season’s 42-40 finish and then the step after that?

JH: Short term, I would say energy and longer term I would say urgency. We still have one of the youngest core group of players in this league. We’ve had success over a three-year period since this ownership group has taken over. ... Even though we had a really tough [first-round] playoff series, you saw our team grow from the previous two years.

There’s energy around that, because of how talented some of our individuals are. There’s energy around it because of some of the things you’re seeing happening in the Eastern Conference this year. That opens up a window of opportunity for us that we want to take advantage of. But we’re not going to skip steps.

One of the new things on GM Jon Horst's plate is his relationship with the media.

NBA.com: It has been well-documented and long-bemoaned that smaller-revenue markets face extra challenges in being competitive. Why do you think the Bucks can navigate those?

JH: There also are well-documented examples of small-market teams having sustained success in this league. We can talk about San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Cleveland. They all have something in common -- great players. So, if you can get great players who buy into a culture, buy into an organization and a city, that gives you a chance to find success and sustain it. We believe we’ve got some great players.

Beyond that, our ownership group from Day 1 has never viewed itself as small-market owners and don’t want this organization to be viewed that way. There’s no better example of that than what you see going around you right now. This practice facility is second to none in professional sports. That arena will be second to none. These are not small-market facilities.

NBA.com: A recent story on ESPN.com concluded with a reminder about Giannis Antetokounmpo’s four-year, $100 million extension that kicks in this season. Some might have seen that as a shot across Milwaukee’s bow about the teams that might line up to lure him away. How do you fend off the vultures?

JH: First of all, he’s our player. He’s under contract with us. And what did Giannis say: “I’ve got loyalty in my DNA?" That was his retort on his own. He said, “This is my team.” So, we by and large ignore that.

NBA.com: Giannis recently took a shot across his own bow, offering that “maybe he could be MVP this season.” Are you glad he’s embracing his potential like that or would you prefer to keep things under the radar?