Just who is the Bucks' new GM, Jon Horst?

Matt Velazquez | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

When reports started to surface that the Milwaukee Bucks had decided to promote their director of basketball operations, Jon Horst, to general manager, people began to ask one common question:

"Who is Jon Horst?"

Sure, Horst has been with the organization for nine years and has played a vital front-office role for many of them. He eventually rose to the point where was he considered former GM John Hammond's right-hand man.

Anywhere Hammond went Horst was there. That included contract negotiations, the draft combine, trade discussions — you name it and Horst was either there or fully apprised of what was going on.

The 34-year-old also became the team's salary-cap guru, crunching numbers and making sure the Bucks were diligently following the often labyrinthine regulations stipulated by the NBA's collective bargaining agreement.

But those roles almost always had Horst working behind the scenes. Most Bucks fans, even the most ardent season-ticket holders, would have trouble picking him out of a lineup. And good luck Googling him; before Friday's headshot that appeared with the Bucks' release announcing Horst's promotion, you'd sooner find a photo of LeBron James than Horst when searching for "Jon Horst" (go ahead, try it).

So, who is Jon Horst? Turns out, that's not exactly a new question.

"That's not the first time someone's said that," says his friend, Klint Pleasant, the son of Horst's college basketball coach, Garth Pleasant. "But you know what, Jon's a grinder. ... I understand that response but every opportunity Jon's had he's capitalized on and I'm sure this will be no different."

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The story starts in the "Thumb" of Michigan north of Detroit, in a town called Sandusky. Ironically enough considering the rivalry between the two neighboring states, when Michigan's Sandusky was founded in 1885 it was named after Sandusky, Ohio. As the story goes, Wildman Mills, who named the town, chose that name because his father had been the one to name the Sandusky in Ohio, which means "at the cold water" in Wyandot.

Sandusky, Mich., covers just over two square miles and is home to roughly 2,700 people, according to the 2010 census. It's closer to the U.S.-Canada border (a drive of about 47 miles) than it is to Saginaw, Flint or Detroit, the three largest cities within a two-hour drive.

Situated on state highways M-46 and M-19, Sandusky is small, blue-collar community and the county seat of Sanilac County. It's where Horst grew up and where his passion for basketball began.

His father, Randall, who works at a small commercial bank, and Kathleen Horst, a middle school language arts and history teacher, have four children. The oldest is Jennifer followed by Jon then Joshua and Justin, who are both police officers.

Jon had his own dream. In third grade, he started to get serious about basketball and told his mom that one day he wanted to play in the NBA. He spent hours upon hours outside working on his game. His practice was made easier when the Horsts moved to W. Speaker St. — right across the street from Sandusky City Park, which has three full basketball courts and two side-by-side half courts — when he was in middle school.

"I think he just about lived on them," Sandusky High School's longtime coach and athletic director Al DeMett said. "He was there all the time honing his skills. There’s nobody that was going to outwork him.”

Horst ultimately played basketball at Sandusky High School, which has an enrollment under 400. While the Redskins didn't have much in the way of team success while Horst was there, he was a capable player.

Horst, a lefty guard, was an unselfish team player and a hard worker, but by his teenage years he realized playing in the NBA wouldn't be in his future. But he still wanted to be in the NBA.

"He always said, 'I will be involved with the NBA some day, mom,' " Kathy Horst said. "It's always been his dream."

Jon decided to continue playing when he matriculated to Rochester College, a small, faith-based school in the northern suburbs of Detroit that is now a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

Horst started on the freshman team before playing three years with the varsity. He was part of Rochester's back-to-back United States Collegiate Athletic Association national championship teams in 2004 and 2005.

Horst didn't log much playing time, but his impact on the team was such that his coach, Garth Pleasant — whose name graces the school's new arena following a 38-year coaching career — will never forget.

"When he graduated I made this comment publicly and I think this says a lot about him," Pleasant said. "I said back in 2006, 'No one has played so little yet given so much to our program than Jon.' I can't begin to tell you how hard a worker he was. He was the consummate team player. He was as respected by his teammates as any young man I coached in my 38 years."

Garth's son, Klint, is the current basketball coach at Rochester but he was the head coach at Division 2 Abilene Christian in Texas, his alma mater, when Horst arrived on campus. From 2002-'05, Klint had his father's team travel down to Texas when possible to take part in tournaments and competitions.

That's how he first met Horst.

"Jon was an overachiever," Klint said. "Jon was one of those guys, in my opinion, that got everything he could out of his ability. He wasn't the most athletic guy on the team but he was the hardest worker on the team and he was the smartest on the team."

During his nearly four decades of coaching, Garth had a practice of never naming captains. The team didn't hold a formal vote either. At some point, a captain would just emerge organically. As a senior in 2005-'06, Horst became that leader that emerged.

"He was the one the players wanted to send out to meet with the refs before the game," Garth said. "Tremendous work ethic. He's a kid of integrity to the nth degree."

Those traits manifested off the basketball court as well.

While Horst was a student-athlete, Garth remembers recruiting a player who came from a particularly disadvantaged background. In Garth's memory, Horst made an effort to reach out to and help his teammate.

"Jon bought a mobile home while he was in college and he lived there his last couple of years, I believe," Garth recalls. "I know the lady that ran the mobile home (area), I talked to her one day, and she talked about how Jon worked there for them, fixing things up. I think he provided a place for this young man to stay. I know they remain dear, dear friends today.

"I think that's the kind of young man he was. He just was really special. ... Not that Jon came from a lot — he was a rural kid from the Thumb, but he's a hard worker and really thought of others."

During his time as basketball coach, athletic director and teacher of sports management classes, Garth built a strong relationship with the Detroit Pistons. The Palace of Auburn Hills is only 7 1/2 miles from Rochester's campus and the Pistons and their players would often use Rochester's gym because it was close by and secluded.

So during Horst's senior year when a woman named Nancy, the secretary to Detroit's GM at the time, Joe Dumars, called Garth looking for an unpaid intern, he knew exactly who to recommend. He told Horst that an important call was coming and it would be up to him what he would do with it.

A few days later, Dumars himself called Horst to invite him to come in for an interview. Horst jumped at the opportunity and was ultimately given the internship.

When Horst got the news he ecstatically called his parents. His mother remembers that conversation clearly.

"He said, 'Mom, I got the internship. I got an internship with the Detroit Pistons!' " Kathy Horst recalls. "And I said, 'Wow, that's really cool,' and he said, 'Mom, you don't get it, I got an internship with the Detroit Pistons!' and I said, 'I know it's really good Jon, it's really good.'

"Then he hesitated and he said, 'You don't get it mom. ... I would have picked up jock straps off the locker room floor to be here. I'm going to work with Joe Dumars and John Hammond!' "

Before Horst started with the Pistons, though, Garth Pleasant gave him specific instructions:

"I told Jon, 'Make it where they can't let you go,' " Garth said. "I knew if they had an intern that was special they would try to have something for him (afterward)."

Horst followed through on that directive and then some. He worked tirelessly during that internship, soaking up knowledge and impressing those he encountered with his energy and humility.

The Pistons indeed kept him around, but that didn't mean there would be any money in it for him. He stayed with the organization another year — unpaid.

"He worked there for free for over two years," Randy Horst said. "He worked there for nothing and I was pretty critical of that. He said, 'Dad, there's people that quit their jobs, quit good jobs to go here and have a chance."

To make it work, Jon held down a series of jobs. He worked nights at FedEx, did setup for Bed, Bath & Beyond and shoveled snow to make extra cash. In his little free time he did odd jobs for the mobile home park where he lived. He even hustled when it came to his residence, getting his trailer — an old trailer in bad shape — for free, fixing it up and renting out space.

"He drove trucks, he ran water lines, he did plumbing underneath trailers, he cleaned sewage lines, I mean, he did everything imaginable," Kathy said. "He's very much a jack of all trades. ... All of that was with this goal in mind, somehow working for the NBA."

"Every place he went they wanted to hire him and keep him," Randy added. "The guy that owned the mobile home park offered him a job to stay there as a foreman and run the two parks."

After two unpaid years there was a position for him and he was named manager of basketball operations, working under Hammond, the Pistons' vice president of basketball operations, and Jeff Weltman, Detroit's director of basketball administration.

Another year went by and this time there wasn't one job offer, but two.

In April 2008, Hammond was hired as the general manager of the Bucks. He brought Weltman with him as his assistant GM and wanted to bring Horst, too. The problem was, Dumars didn't want to let Horst go. Horst made the tough choice to leave the Pistons — a dream place to work for a Michigan kid — to go to Milwaukee as the Bucks' director of basketball operations in a move that was announced about a month after Hammond was hired.

Kathy remembers him telling her that if this was going to be his career he thought he could learn the most by going with Hammond, who had more executive experience. "I don't think he's ever regretted it," Kathy says now.

In the years since Horst left Michigan for the first time, he's stayed in touch with everyone back home while accumulating experience and earning respect in the Bucks franchise.

During the all-star break this past February, Horst, his wife Mia and children Sophie and Zeke visited Rochester to celebrate the opening of Garth Pleasant Arena. Over the course of conversations in Garth's office, the former head coach asked Horst what his next step would be.

He didn't give a timetable as to when, but Horst said he expected his next move would be into an assistant GM or GM position.

Horst didn't know that in three months Weltman would become the president of basketball operations for the Orlando Magic and would hire Hammond away from the Bucks to be the Magic's general manager. He didn't know that there would be a weeks-long search, with a half-dozen candidates receiving interviews before Milwaukee's ownership would settle on him as the next general manager of the Bucks.

And his former coach and mentor, Garth Pleasant, the man who still tells Horst's story to students as often as possible, well, he didn't see it coming that soon either. But he's not surprised in the least.

That's because — unlike most people — he knows exactly who Jon Horst is, where he came from and what he's capable of.

"He's just a blue-collar kid; he doesn’t call attention to himself, he just does the job," Garth said.

"Now I get to add to the story."

The rest of the next chapter remains to be written. Horst knows the challenges and issues that face him in the coming days, weeks and months as Milwaukee's general manager, but he's champing at the bit to get started.

According to his parents, Jon's barely slept since Friday when he got the job — he's too "geeked up." And when it comes to those challenges, Jon's focused on exceeding expectations from Day 1.

"I'm not going to hit the ground running," Jon told his parents on Saturday night. "I'm going to hit the ground like a rocket ship."