Darko Milicic

GreatLakeState said:

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Does Darko suck because he
doesn't play, or does he not play because he flat out sucks? I'm going
with the latter.

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GLS, If I'm annoyed at somebody or something I can get on my hobby horse and ride it to death, but you aint no slouch either. What's up with Darko? Does he owe you money or did he steal your girlfriend or something?

The kid came from a warn torn country with a totally different culture and language, then finds himself in one of the ugliest black holes on the continent. Seeing the city and his team mates must have thrown him into a state of shock! And he thought Belgrade was dangerous? It may take him years to get over the trauma. No wonder they say he plays like a zombie...let's get real!

Mehmet Okur had lots of ability, but was consigned to bench warming duty, which is reserved for the melanin challenged. A change of scenery did him a world of good, he's become an excellent player for Utah. I wouldn't be surprised if Darko follows suit.

GLS has been doing this for a while, he probably feels guilty posting on a pro-white site so he busts an anti-white rant off every once in a while. Ignore it, he usually "gets better" after a while.

Mehmet Okur is playing like a all-star in Utah. Another white player the pistons never really gave a chance to devolop. Why sign or draft them in the first place?

GreatLakeState said:

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Does Darko suck because he
doesn't play, or does he not play because he flat out sucks? I'm going
with the latter.

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That is the question, and hopefully we'll get an answer soon enough. We don't know with absolute certainty that he's hopeless, but I tend to agree with you. (Although I don't derive as much pleasure from insulting a white player as you do, but that's another issue for another day.) It would be utterly insane for Detroit to intentionally mistreat a second overall pick, someone they've spent millions of dollars on, including an extension.

At the same time, it is the worst fit for him imaginable. And I have to wonder how much playing time Robert Swift or Andrew Bogut would get right now if they were with Detroit. What do you think? Are they that much better than him, or would they have difficulty getting minutes as well? Hmm....

I just hope that the jury is almost in with this guy. We've been waiting long enough to see something good from him. Edited by: JD074

Labeling a guy a bust when he hasn't gotten a chance to play is a crock. I can tell you why GLS defends the Pistons and rips on Darko - it's simple: He's a homer. Anybody remotely critizing the Pistons is the devil. GLS, you gotta lighten up and start looking at things more objectively. You write and think better when your not waving the hometown colors. If Darko gets the playing time that most starters get he will produce.

I think you are right Kaptain Poop. It is a hard thing for most sports fans to think objectively when you are so wrapped up in your home teams colors that you can't think objectively about a situation. I am a big mavericks fan for instance and Dirk is my favorite player but for caste purposes my favorite team should be the Jazz because of all their white players but I will still root for the mavs(even if they play the jazz in the playoffs) because I ALWAYS have and can't change.

Hey the main reason Darko wasn't playing was becuase all of the success the Pistons were having without Darko playing. Doesn't the saying go "if it ain't broke don't fix it". Well I think thats true in the Pistons case as in they had a set rotation and it is working perfectly so don't change it. Darko was on a team with a lot of good players and so its difficult to get playing time on a championship caliber team. So Darko going to Orlando will rejuvenate his career and we'll finally get to see just how good he is.

As much as I'd like to see the kid excel, I have to agree with whiteCB: The Pistons won a championship with Milicic on the bench. It's hard to complain about a formula that works. Sometimes, a good player is a victim of the numbers game. Five players for 48 minutes per game means that somebody has to sit the bench. Timing and opportunity are often more important than talent.

Southern Knight said:

As much as I'd like to see the kid excel, I have to agree with whiteCB: The Pistons won a championship with Milicic on the bench. It's hard to complain about a formula that works. Sometimes, a good player is a victim of the numbers game. Five players for 48 minutes per game means that somebody has to sit the bench. Timing and opportunity are often more important than talent.

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That may be true, but let's not pretend that Darko's whiteness didn't have something to do with the incredibly miniscule amount of playing time he got. A team that wins 4/5 of it's games could surely find more playing time to develop young talent. Would a black lottery pick on the Pistons gotten the same treatment? I doubt it. As has been pointed out before on this site, highly touted white players often have to go through years of proving their worth before they are given a decent amount of playing time - on good or bad teams.

Good luck to Darko as he makes his Magic debut tonight against the Cavs. I hope he is able to be respectable and not struggle as I imagine he will...

Darko had 2 points in 4 minutes last night, and was held out of tonight's game. ESPN said it was the coaches decision.

DNP-CD ... shocking!

It was his second game! Give him time to learn the playbook. I think GLS is rooting for Darko to fail just so he can be proved right. GLS may be proven right..but I have a question for you..don't you think that would be a bad thing, if Darko fails? I personally think he has too much athletic talent for a 7 footer and a good shooting touch to fail. He was drafted #2 overall for a reason.

GLS is a biased Pistons fan. I'd probably be doing the same thing if I were a Pistons fan.

Why would anyone who cheers for white athletes root for the Pistons nowadays? Bill Laimbeer is long gone. Proximity? Blood is thicker than geography.

There's a long article about Darko on ESPN Insider by Chad Ford. I'm not going to reprint the whole thing here because it's a subscription only article, just this small portion that claims that the failure of Darko thus far is responsible for the NBA rapidly turning away from European players since he was drafted:

"Darko's failure has sent shockwaves through the league. That year, NBA teams drafted a record eight international players in the first round and another 12 in the second round. Only one of them, Boris Diaw, is having solid success in the league. A few others, such as Zaza Pachulia and Mickael Pietrus, are making strides.

"By 2005, the number of international players had been halved to four in the first round. This year, only three international players are projected as first-round picks. Scouts even have a name for the dwindling number of international players coming into the league: the Darko Backlash."

Darko was clearly a project. What was he, 18 when they drafted him. And with a lottery pick? Big gamble and they lost. He should have been picked later and brought along slowly on a team that could give him time. The Pistons are out to win every game. They play to win every possesion. They're a defensive team so they rarely have blowout wins. It was just all bad for the kid. It means nothing about Euros that have a better developed game.

From today's Detroit Free Press -- same mentally weak prima donna
Darko. Enough excuses for this clown. What an utter waste.


BY DREW SHARP
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

ORLANDO -- Four days into a fresh opportunity at redemption, and
Darko Milicic is already sulking. The name on the uniform is different, but
the seat at the end of the bench hasn't changed.

He doesn't get it. And he probably never will.

He can't even play on a team that has given up hope on the season.

"I didn't come here to sit on the bench," Milicic said Thursday after the
Orlando Magic's practice. "I tell myself that everything will be fine here,
but right now, nothing has changed. I want to play. I need to play. I learn
nothing sitting on the bench."

Nothing has changed. Darko still blames other factors for his inactivity.
He eagerly embraced his emancipation from the Pistons, somehow
convincing himself that liberation from his self-described "nightmare"
would immediately register into consistent playing time with the Magic.

But Darko didn't play one second in his second game with the Magic,
Wednesday at New Jersey.

"You have to ask them why," Darko said of the coaches.

Magic coach Brian Hill offered the same refrain that grew age lines in
Detroit the past three years. Darko has "tremendous upside," Hill said, but
he has to "learn his new surroundings" and grow comfortable with the
situation.

In other words, he needs to wake up.

But the Magic will discover what the Pistons reluctantly learned before
trading him last week. Darko has an unyielding sense of entitlement that
will prevent him from fully taking advantage of his physical gifts. He
equates playing time with something gift-wrapped under a Christmas
tree.

"There's no disputing the kid's skill level," Hill said.

The coach gave Milicic one-on-one tutelage Thursday, initially letting the
7-footer rain threes with unconscious consistency, then schooling him on
the low block. Once again, there was the liquid ease in which Darko
flowed off his pivot, slamming the ball home or gently kissing it off the
glass.

And again came amazement from observers.

How could the Pistons not find even a little room for somebody of this
much potential?

But those who caught the solo show during Darko's first workout in his
new home will discover that those skills diminish in a five-on-five setting.

It's time for Darko to grow up, sack up and maybe wise up. He still holds
a grudge against the Pistons for how he thinks they treated him.

"I was pissed," said Milicic, who scored two points in four minutes in his
Orlando debut. "It was always the same story, same story. They told me to
be ready, and I was. They told me to have a good preseason, and I did.
But my playing time went to nothing. They didn't want me, so I needed to
leave."

But was his time in Detroit really "a nightmare," as he called it this week
before playing his first game in Orlando?

Milicic, 20, found freedom and riches he never could have envisioned as a
kid in war-torn Serbia and Montenegro.

"War is bad, but it's something that is out of your control," he said.
"Basketball is something that you can control, and when it didn't work out
like I had wanted, it became a bad experience. I just want to play
basketball and have fun." The Pistons "didn't give me that chance."

If anything, Darko's problem is that he has become too Americanized.

A concern remains that Milicic lacks motivation to push himself beyond
the fruits already won from being the second pick in the 2003 draft. It's
still easier to blame somebody else for his shortcomings.

Isn't there a local law on the books prohibiting the Magic from engaging
in a business deal with Joe Dumars? Orlando hasn't recovered from the
less-than-minimal return on its seven-year, $98-million investment in
Grant Hill in 2000. The sign-and-trade deal involving Hill gave the
Pistons the backbone of their championship revival -- Ben Wallace.

But some people in Orlando think that vengeance is finally theirs, fleecing
the Pistons of an unrefined talent they ruined solely by neglect.

Sounds like the Magic Kingdom has been sniffing Tinker Bell's pixie dust.

Its funny, there are a lot of comments about his poor attitude, but none of that is apparent in his own words. Nor is there much on the negative side said in this article about his ability. In fact, he seems to be constantly praised for his ability to play the game.

So why AREN'T they playing him?

This is a silly article written by a black writer working for a Detroit paper. There is nothing in this piece indicating Darko is a prima donna or clown. He wants to play and is tired of sitting.Every timeI read about this kid, everyone is amazed at his shooting skills, athleticism and ability. He will never learn to play the gamewarming a seat. Is he expected to be the typical white player who never complains and fritters his career away on the bench? I hope he sulks, whines, broods, gets nasty and moody and makes some waves. Why the hell not??? That is common behavior for black athletes who always seem to get their own way.


He hasn't been in Orlando but for a couple days and this goofy writer is already bashing him? blacks don't want Darko to do well. If Darko is the poster boy for Euro players they'd love nothing more than to see him utterly fail.


Andrew Bogut is another example. The kid can flat out play. But over the course of the year, he's been playing less and less to make room for other players who don't want to sit on the bench. He does all the heavy lifting for the team. He sets picks, passes the ball unselfishly and bangs in the middle, but rarely takes a shot. The announcers are always amazed at his court sense. He is expected to dish off to Michael Redd who shoots about a hundred times a game. Rarely is a play called for him to get a shot, the brothers can't handle that.

So GLS uses a hometown(Detroit)newspaper aticle to convince us all that Darko is a troublemaker, whiner and complainer. We aren't convinced. I ask you again GLS, do you want him to fail and why?

Darko played 22 minutes today and had a really good game, he went 3-4 with 8 points, 5 boards and 2 blocks and his team won. I think he'll be great player.

I'd give Darko increasingly more floor time to develop his wind, since he hasn't played that much. If he holds his own I'd work him like a rented mule, play him as much as possible.The team isn't going anywhere this year anyhow.


YahooSports Commentsfrom last nights game:Howard had 23 points and 16 rebounds and Hill had 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting, but it was Arroyo and Millicic, the second pick in the 2003 NBA draft, who lifted the Magic out of their latest slump.


Playing in Magic uniforms in front of their home fans for the first time since being acquired from Detroit a week ago, Arroyo had a season-high 18 points and four assists and Millicic had eight points and five rebounds in 22 minutes, all season highs.


"I thought Carlos and Darko both executed our offense well and made no mistakes as far as where they were supposed to be on the floor," coach Brian Hill said. "Carlos is experienced enough that he's going to get the ball to the right people and I was very pleased with Darko. He has a really good feel for the game."


He was 3-4 and had two blocks.

The column cited above by GLS was written by Drew Sharp an extremely white hating black columnist. He has traded insults with the local area readers over his pro-black views (if you can believe it is possible to be TOO pro-black). He once described Brock Forsey as a 7th string running back after Forsey ran the Bears to a win over Lions.

It appears Darko has a knack for blocking shots. He's had 6 swats in the last two games playing only 39 minutes. He led the league in the pre-season. Good shot blockers rely on anticipation, timing, leaping ability and positioning. We'll see how he pans out.