NBA Draft: Every team’s least popular pick ever

Detroit Pistons – Darko Milicic (2003)

This is arguably the most obvious inclusion in this entire list just given how it looks in hindsight. The Detroit Pistons taking Darko Milicic with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 draft was one of those selections that was mildly defensible at the time. By all accounts, Darko was a workout monster that did nothing but turn heads in the gym whenever he was showing teams what he had.

However, that doesn’t make it look any better now nor does it make it any more popular of a selection by the Pistons. Obviously Detroit was never going to have the opportunity to take LeBron James, but the 2003 draft class is widely regarded as one of the best in history and easily one of the best in the last 20 years. And Darko stands as an unsightly albatross among the future Hall-of-Famers. I mean it’s never a good look when Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade were the three players taken consecutively after Milicic.

To make matters worse, Darko was almost less than nothing of consequence on the floor for the Pistons. He spent only 2.5 seasons with the team and barely did anything in regards to production. Not that he did much else in any of his other NBA stops, but the Pistons were by far the worst of his stays.

Next: Golden State Warriors