Darko Milicic

What about that statement GLS,from the Pistons best player. He just said what we all already knew happened to him in Detroit. Kudos to Chauncey for saying that, I have alot of respect for him. "There's nothing he can't do on the court" says it all, doesn't it!

Darko better not turn into a great player or i will freak out.
I sware Detroit better have been correct in its assertation that Darko sucks. I have tried so hard to convince myself that the Pistons were doing the right thing in not giving him any playing time. If Darko becomes a star then I wont be the only one with some anger towards that organization and ESPECIALLY Larry Brown.

Rebounding machine Troy Murphy snagged 20 boards for Golden State but Darko playing only 26 minutes hauled in  9 and had 2 blocks to go along with a 6-7 shooting night.  Even if he stalls and doesn't improve much more this year, he's already played better than his critics predicted.

And unlike what most of the experts have said, when he is on the floor he looks to me like he is playing hard and that he wants to prove he belongs. They say he simply doesn't care about the game, but I don't see that in the way he is playing right now.

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.

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.

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 time I read about this kid, everyone is amazed at his shooting skills, athleticism and ability. He will never learn to play the game warming 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. 

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.

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."

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