ST. FRANCIS, Wis. (AP) — Andrew Bogut is ready to show the NBA his game.
The No. 1 overall draft pick visited his new team, the Milwaukee Bucks, on Wednesday and told reporters he's glad the hectic activity surrounding Tuesday night's draft in New York is over.
Now the 7-foot center said he can get some rest, learn about his new teammates and concentrate on basketball — a game he started playing at age 11 in his native Melbourne.
"I think this is the best part. Things quiet down, and now I'll just let my game do the talking," he said.
Bogut said he's a good fit for Milwaukee, which he called a blue-collar place that fits his background in Australia, where he worked his way through the youth program to the national team and then became a starter for the 2004 Australian Olympic squad.
Bogut, 20, who earned college player-of-the-year honors at Utah, said he's eager to get to work, and seemed to welcome the heavy expectations placed on his shoulders by the Bucks — a team coming off its worst record (30-52) in nearly a decade.
General manager Larry Harris said he already told Bogut his personal prediction for the player's future, given his talents for passing the ball and scoring, and his competitive nature.
"I really believe within the next five years you're going to look at the best center in the Eastern Conference," Harris said.
With the draft over, Harris said he can focus on re-signing top scorer Michael Redd and other free agents, and hiring a replacement for Terry Porter, the second-year coach who was fired last week.
He said the coach search became much easier once the Bucks won the top pick in the draft lottery and used it to take Bogut. He declined to give any timetable for the search.
Draft day turned out to be hectic for Bogut, and his agent, David Bauman, estimated he made 10 or 12 calls to Harris as Milwaukee considered what to do with the top pick.
Atlanta held the No. 2 pick, but Bogut said he was hoping the Bucks would make him the draft's first selection.
When they chose him, it created a media circus back in his native country, not just here, he said.
"I heard that they stopped every television program and put on a news break about the draft, which is very special," he said. "You know, basketball is not the biggest sport in Australia so it's very special to me to have something like that. ... The country actually stopped for five minutes and they had that break. The people down there are very proud of me."
As for his parents, Michael and Anne Bogut, and his sister Michelle, 25, "they're loving it," although they are still learning how to deal with the media pressure, he said.
Bogut said he was impressed that the fans in Milwaukee's Bradley Center on draft night displayed flags of Australia and also of Croatia, honoring his ethnic heritage, as they cheered his selection.
"You don't get that in many NBA arenas," he said. "I think the people here are very proud to have me and I'm very proud to have them."
Although a new collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and its players association hasn't been finalized, Bauman said the rookie wage scale likely will give Bogut a first-year salary of about $4.2 million.
Bogut is among the young Bucks players expected to get a taste of NBA competition during summer-league play.
He said one of his priorities will be finding a home in Milwaukee with a view of the water — which will be Lake Michigan instead of the Southern Pacific Ocean shores of his hometown.
"I'm going to get an apartment somewhere looking at the water," he said. "I love the water. To wake up every day it would be good to see that."