OT: Darko Milicic finds peace as a farmer.
Here's piece on Darko Milicic, the guy the Pistons chose over Anthony, Bosh, and Wade back in '03:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/miserable-at-every-nba-stop-darko-milicic-…
Bonus SE Michigan basketball note: Oakland came from 20 down in the second half last night to beat Clemson.
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/2017/03/14/oakland-stun…
It's the Memphis contract that makes this story even sadder from a NBA management standpoint. What untapped potential did Memphis see after his Detroit tenure?
I didn't read the article, but I hope it states that Darko invested his money wisely. Perhaps the farm is the lasting benefit from the tens of millions of dollars he made in his NBA career.
Total, according to basketball-refernce, he made more than $52 million in the NBA.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/milicda01.html
March 15th, 2017 at 11:34 AM ^
Yeah for as great as the other players behind Darko wound up being, none of them would have been a good fit on that team. They didn't need Wade because they had Rip and Chauncey, and they didn't need Bosh because they already had a tall skinny big man in Tayshaun. Tayshaun would have presented playing time problems for Carmelo too, not to mention that Carmelo and Larry Brown would've been a bad fit.
The one thing that team didn't have was a solid big man. So going after Darko was as no brainer as no brainer gets.
Jeez he is 350 lbs now. Hope he takes care of himself. Self discipline doesn't seem to be his strong suit based on his comments at every stop.
i'm not going to make a case for darko being anything other than a bust. that would be ridiculous.
i do continue to maintain that, at the time, there were very, very few people that thought the pistons blew the pick.
i would also point out that maybe the pistons were not an ideal situation (very good team in the hunt for championships, coached by larry brown) for him at a pivotal point in his career.
By the author. When you expect "Finds peace as a farmer," you expect there to be a good amount of information regarding his life choice as a farmer.
It was mentioned one time in there and the rest was about his NBA career.
Unless I missed a good section of it, I was looking forward to reading about how things settled down for him after basketball and other endeavors.
too. there is a fairly predictable pace to it. depending on the type of farming he is doing the weather can make a big difference to your crops/harvest and even to the livestock. it would be figuratlvely worlds away from the bright lights and celebrity of pro sports. spreading manure will help keep anyone humble....
March 15th, 2017 at 10:02 AM ^
spreading manure will help keep anyone humbleIt sure hasn't helped Jim Delany, Paul Finebaum, Colin Cowherd or Stephen A. Smith be humble. And they do it every single day.
March 15th, 2017 at 10:19 AM ^
no matter what, the picture doesn't come close to doing justice to the smell.
I can understand not picking Wade and Melo considering u had had RIP and Tay, but the pick should have been Bosch instead of Darko.
March 15th, 2017 at 10:20 AM ^
This is the truth. Sheed was an older player relative to the young wing players, and clearly this was felt by management as well. But it's not like Bosh was without question marks as well. This was just the beginning on the one and done era, and Bosh was solid but not alarmingly great in college. Averaged something like 15 and 9 for an average at best Georgia Tech team. Clearly hindsight says that Bosh would have been the best available pick, but it's not like he was any more of a sure thing than Darko.
I'm a lead farmer.
March 15th, 2017 at 10:08 AM ^
March 15th, 2017 at 10:16 AM ^
Bad first round picks happen in all sports and there is usually some logic associated with the bad picks. Pistons had Rip and Tayshaun so the "obvious" draft choices were in positions of relatvely little need. 20/20 hindsight ..it was a bad pick of epic proportions due to Darko's attitude, not his athletic ability and potential.
The Pistons had a great run and Joe D was a big part of that. Rather than for the bad pick, I'll always remember him as a first class guy, terrific player, and the relationship he had with his dad including the surreal, incredible game he had after his dad died.
March 15th, 2017 at 11:51 AM ^
March 15th, 2017 at 12:28 PM ^
the Pistons went to ECF 7 straight years which is phenomenal. He traded Chauncey too early but understandable considering he wanted to keep it up for years to come. The returns were bad.
I take it his kickboxing career never took off, eh?
March 15th, 2017 at 11:53 PM ^
Not only did Dumars have a championship team but if it weren't for Sheed having a brainfart and leaving Big Shot Bob wide open for a 3 to go double up on Manu (who doesn't have a good 3 ball at all), he'd have a back-to-back to his name.
March 16th, 2017 at 12:48 AM ^
March 16th, 2017 at 12:48 AM ^