Milwaukee Bucks GM Jon Horst calls Eric Bledsoe 'a high-character guy'

Eric Bledsoe is officially a member of the Milwaukee Bucks and will likely be on the court when his new team takes on the San Antonio Spurs Friday night (9 ET, ESPN). His final days with the Phoenix Suns were memorable ones, but for reasons Bledsoe would likely soon like to forget — between his “I Don’t wanna be here tweet” and the ensuing fallout with Suns GM Ryan McDonough.

Bledsoe reacted to his trade publicly for the first time last night with a video on Uninterrupted in which he tried to clear his name. In addition to that, Bucks GM Jon Horst made it a point to often speak highly of Bledsoe’s character in a Q&A session with Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Why was this the right deal and why was this the right time?

“I think this was the right deal because we were able to add someone that’s dynamic, another dynamic player that can score the ball, that can play-make for others, that has defensive toughness, athleticism and strength. And we were able to do that with effectively giving up one of the pieces of our core, as we’ve talked about publicly. Also, the Bucks DNA thing we’ve talked about is real. He is a high-character guy, highly talented, he has positional versatility, he can play on the ball and off the ball and he’s got great toughness.”

With the way things ended for Bledsoe in Phoenix, is that something that bothered you or gave you any pause?

“No, because with everything we do we do our due diligence. In surveying the league and getting that information, to a person everyone thinks very highly of Eric. I think in this business sometimes the business aspect of it takes over. … I think he was in a tough situation. We had a franchise that was trying to go in one direction, a player that wanted to be competitive in a different direction and those two things pulled at each other and it kind of resulted in what we all saw. That was of very little consideration for us, really all through this.”

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With Eric set to join the team, there’s a chemistry aspect to this. Guys in the locker room liked Greg and enjoyed him as a teammate and a person and as a member of their family. How do you think that impacts the chemistry going forward as the team is introduced to a new player who they’ll need to integrate?

“I think they’re all professionals. We have a group of high-character people that are really smart, really professional. It’s part of the business and they understand that. These guys are used to transition and used to adjusting on the fly. Our group is not going to miss a beat with this. I think they’ll welcome Eric with open arms and hopefully they’ll fit in great. And we hope that Greg does the same where he goes next.”

Does it help that you have a guy in Mirza Teletovic who played with Bledsoe in Phoenix and knows him?

“It definitely doesn’t hurt to have that familiarity. Mirza’s the guy that played with him most recently, I don’t know off-hand, I don’t think anyone else on our roster has played with him, but these guys all know each other in basketball circles. I was talking with Khris (Middleton) today and Khris has spent time with Eric. These guys know each other, so there’s already a familiarity there.”

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