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Darko Milicic: I respect LeBron James' career; he is one of the best, but I remember him at the very start. His jump shot back then was like throwing stones—serious 'stone-throwing' from the shoulder. But the difference was that whenever he threw a 'bomb,' everyone would scream 'Bravo!' and call him a legend. He was projected to succeed, and that support is everything. If he had two guys literally carrying him to the rim just to make sure he dunked, they would do it just to maintain the image. I saw him play against us and score maybe nine points while missing everything, yet the media and team would talk about how great it looked. When you have that level of institutional support, you cannot fail. He was a 'project' from day one, unlike the rest of us who were left to fight against the entire world without any backup.
Darko Milicic: The toughest, the absolute toughest for me—everyone would say Shaq because of the physics, but no, brother, it was Pau Gasol. Just when you think you have him, he somehow always slips away. He always finds a way to turn you or do something; he was just so difficult. Really difficult. I liked those who played without much brain, like Dwight Howard and those types. I plowed through the ones who relied only on force... but this one (Gasol) was wise; he always had one more move, and you were never certain where you stood with him.
Darko Milicic: I spent my whole life fighting against both opponents and prejudices. In Orlando, it happened 100 times—I’m a 7-footer who can rise up and shoot, but while I’m in the middle of taking a shot, the coach is screaming 'Down to Dwight! Down to Dwight!' I was subbed out a hundred times for it. I would shoot and score, then turn around and say, 'Forget Dwight, sub me out then!' How do you play with confidence when the coach is yelling at you while you are taking the shot? Dwight never leaves the paint; if he does, some tragedy happens. I couldn't believe they couldn't recognize that I could play on the perimeter and bring a new dimension to the game. It was ugly and unprofessional for a coach to scream at a player during a shot, especially a young one trying to find his way.
Darko Milicic: Orlando was a great period for me initially because I actually got to play. After a good stretch, the team actually offered me a $44 million contract over four years. I would have accepted it without even thinking about the money because I liked it there. But then, they suddenly pulled the offer. They said they were 'afraid' because my 'head wasn't stable.' They offered it and then they played with my head by taking it away. I stayed and played the next season quite well, and the coach told me at the exit meeting that the season wouldn't even start without me. But then he got fired, Stan Van Gundy came in, and he didn't want to see my face on a postage stamp. He wanted to 'exorcise' the gym because my name was on the roster. It’s fascinating how quickly a new coach can decide you have zero value.
Darko Milicic: When things ended in Orlando, I told my manager, 'Brother, send me anywhere but Memphis.' I knew Memphis was a 'shack'—a total tragedy for a player's career. Twenty days later, he calls me and says, 'You only have Memphis.' I said, 'Alright, if we are going down, let’s fall in style.' I went there and after a few games, I realized I couldn't live like that. The team was a disaster and I had to start making up injuries, like lower back pain, just to cope with the reality of being there. I had other offers, like a one-year deal in Philadelphia for $8 million, but I chose the three-year 'guaranteed' pile of money in Memphis out of a sense of security. I wasn't thinking realistically; I was just looking for a way to survive the 'bugs' in my own head and ensure my future.
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“Like I said before, the hardest guy for me? People would think it was Shaq physically, but no, it was Gasol,” Milicic recalled on the “Luka i Kuzma Podcast”. “Whenever you think you have him, he somehow twists out. He always finds a way to turn on you, Pau was just tricky. I loved guarding guys with less brain, like Dwight Howard. With those guys, you know where you are. Pau was smart; he always had counter-move.” “Not to mention Tim Duncan, who was a force,” Milicic added. “I faced Dirk in a lot of situations too, and he’s just fascinating. I didn’t play much, so in situations when you’re not playing, you’re mostly relying on defense. You think, ‘Look at this lanky guy, man, there’s no way, bro,’ and just when you have him, he’s above you every single time. It’s amazing how he gets his shot off — that fadeaway is impossible to guard, bro. He and his mid-range game were impossible to defend.”
Still, that 2003-04 Pistons team was one of the most motivational stories to ever grace the NBA hardwood, and recently, a key member of that team, forward Tayshaun Prince, revealed why he himself may have been a reason the team opted not to select Anthony, via The Knuckleheads Podcast. “I think how management looked at it was like they found their future small forward in me, let’s take a chance on Darko because remember (Mehmet) Okur, who we had, who was super talented, there was a chance we were going to lose him in free agency, which we did,” said Prince. “Then obviously (Rasheed Wallace), so it was like however they want to call it, we’ll take a chance on Darko.”
NBA Central: Chauncey Billups says the Pistons would have run LeBron out of Cleveland had Detroit drafted Carmelo Anthony. “We win at least 3 chips.” 👀 (🎥 @7PMinBrooklyn ) pic.twitter.com/alU08AUOsG
“I heard he was after me, but I didn’t see him; I have no idea. If he wanted, he would’ve seen me, he would’ve found me, he knew where I was. Those are their gangster stories, you know, like: ‘I was looking for him to show him.’ What do you want to show me? I heard his emotions got the better of him; he needs to calm down pronto,” Milicic concluded.
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It didn’t take long for the former Serbian player to respond. “He’s still whining about something to this day… What are you whining about? You’re third! What do you want? Are you crazy? Maybe if I were third, I’d still be playing, and he’d be picking apples,” Milicic said on the Jao Mile podcast to another former Serbian NBA player, Mile Ilic.
Melo recently spoke about going after Darko and ending up with the Denver Nuggets instead of joining the championship-caliber Pistons, admitting he wanted to confront Milicic and prove Detroit wrong. “I heard stories about Darko and the Detroit Pistons, and I immediately got ready to head there. I had to find out where he trained to track him down. Where are they hiding him? I wondered. I went to every gym to find him. Yes, that’s a true story. I wanted to find him, beat him one-on-one, and show that I should have been the first pick for the Detroit Pistons,” Anthony said, speaking on Dwayne Wade’s podcast.
Despite being guaranteed to be drafted second overall, Milicic still wasn't sure he would be picked by Detroit at no. 2. "We were in the VIP section, and I just didn't care, you know, he's really going to call me, you know, because I really couldn't believe that he would guarantee me the second pick. How to say, I wasn't me for a single moment. Looking back, I really had traits to become something in that territory," he said. "When I went there, I was full of confidence. I mean, I saw that they were really good guys. Obviously, I saw where they came from and what they did, they were good. I was full of confidence. I had no problem playing with anybody. However, only now when I look back, I switched off at one point, I literally switched off," Milicic recalled. "I don't know in what period it happened exactly, but I just switched off."
"I only did one martyrdom in Detroit, and I suffered. I couldn't breathe, it was chaos. Because of the guarantees, they say, 'You go enjoy it'. And I really enjoyed it, I really enjoyed it. I took it full throttle," he said in the Jao Mile podcast. "I remember that workout, they carried me, they carried me. I couldn't breathe after dribbling through two half-courts. I'm still there, and I'm going down," Milicic said. "And they're beating me with those training pads. Brother, I wanted to stab him. 'Don't do it, brother, when I'm suffering like this.' And there was a little helper who was just waiting for you under the basket. Then they buried you with those pads. And I said, 'Look at this lunatic.' 'Don't do it, man, let me go.' I was struggling with myself like this, my soul was in the nose."