Maybe you know Darko Milicic as a world-famous NBA draft bust, but what does it take for someone to get that label? What was Milicic’s career actually like? What created the hype that rendered that career a disappointment? Let’s investigate in the Prism.
Directed and edited by Jiazhen Zhang
Written and produced by Seth Rosenthal
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The timberolves did not sign Batum
As a pistons fan, I think Darko gets dragged too harshly sometimes. Was he a bust? Yea ofc he was. But he was drafted to be their long term C/PF, knowing that Okur was about to leave to chase a bag in free agency of 2004. On another team, Darko would’ve been given a lot more freedom to learn via trial and error. But what did the pistons do? They smelled an opportunity to really compete and they traded for Rasheed. The Sheed trade was obv a great move for the team, but it suddenly meant there were multiple guys ahead of Darko – Sheed, Okur, Corliss, etc. and simply put, that’s not a good environment for young player development. The priority was winning over Darko’s development. Darko’s pressure not to make mistakes was higher than the emphasis on nurturing him – as is typically the case on most contending teams. Not to say that the pistons didn’t devote any energy to developing Darko, but it was a far cry from a non-contending team like Today’s OKC giving Alexi Pokusevski free run during their rebuild. Also, raw ingredients in the hands of a careless chef won’t help you make a good meal: There were waaaay too many 20+ point blowouts during those days where the W was already in hand, yet instead of giving Darko 7-8 mins of pressure-free garbage time, Larry Brown would only put him in during the final minute or so. Long beyond his NCAA coaching days, Larry Brown was no longer a player development coach; he was not the right guy to handle Darko, especially when you consider Darko was struggling with an immense culture shock and had to be spoon fed basic things like showering after games and showing up to team dinners. Even these same pistons screwed over another player in a similar manner: drafted Stanley Johnson (who’s one premier skill in college was driving downhill and finishing through contact) to be your SF of the future and immediately sign Marcus Morris to start ahead of him; thus SJ was relegated to 3-D duty, instead of being allowed to play free and run downhill. I think the pistons have finally learned their lesson with Jaden Ivey and are letting him play like they should’ve let SJ (helps that they’re not real contenders atm). James Weisman is looking more and more like an afterthought in GSW, and it’s eerily like watching some Darko deja vu for me.
Maybe an unpopular choice…but I still think if he get drafted ANYWHERE else, he would have been at least a solid NBA starter. He had tools, but fragile ego what was easily squashed by Coach Brown
Detroit would’ve had a better dynasty then the spurs if melo or wade got drafted
I feel like there is a Detroit native on y'alls production team. You've given us a lot of michigan team videos.
Darko was a 7 footer that like to put the ball on floor and shoot 3s and jumpers while blocking shots… imagine if he played in today's era…
Jokic is like the opposite of Darko. Jok should have been picked 2nd overall and Darko should have been a 2nd rounder. People had faith in Darko when he was average. People will call Jokic average when he’s always been a superstar. They’re both Serbian too.
13:23 …. look at me holding to phones working hard
I think he was good it was just hard to adapt to America life being a 19 year old it's not easy Europeans because we are all family oriented and family is everything
What a loser. All the opportunities in the world and he just didn’t put in the effort.
My thing is how is it his fault he was a bust rather than that entire front office was awful and made by far the worst decision because their talent evaluators missed 4 times.
A young Wilt Chamberlain?
Lol classic picture at 13:25 with GM Joe Dumars on the twin phones 😂
A video like this about Dante Exum would be super interesting. He was another foreign born player who was overhyped by scouts early on and became a spectacular bust. He was somehow drafted 5th overall in the 2014 draft ahead of very good players like Marcus Smart, Julius Randle, Nikola Jokic, and Jordan Clarkson.
He was plagued by injuries (averaging only 35 games played per season), only averaged 5.7 points per game in his career, and was out of the league within 7 years.
Even NBA2K thought he was going to be a future star, when they infamously made him the main rival in the my player mode in NBA 2K15.
And Lebron was the only one that did anything and was worth the pick.
He got more rings than melo 🤷🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️😂😂
Look, Darko didn't help his situation but, Larry Brown should of at least gave him a shot at trying to be a 4 with some range. I would of liked to see what that would of looked like, basically a lesser Sheed as his backup.
Larry brown killed darkos confidence and he never recovered
I can't watch the video I'm too pissed we drafter him smh 😤
I remember 03 as a Syracuse native. My favorite joke of 04 was Donnie Darko getting a chip before LBJ or Melo. You did miss one factor in his #2 spot. According to lore Anthony told the Pistons he wouldn't accept a bench role, opening the door for Darko.
It's not that much about Darko rather than who got drafted after him. If you look at it fair then he's not that much of a bust. He wasn't that good for a 2nd pick, don't get me wrong, it's just that the 03 draft was stacked.
That 2003 draft class was absolutely incredible. I remember watching Darko's highlights from overseas and thought he was going to be a monster. Just goes to show you how important your team and coach is to a players success. That Detroit team was stacked and there's not many players that were good enough to step on the court with that Pistons team.