Report: Darko Milicic got drunk before Detroit Pistons practice
By John Buhler
Darko Milicic busted catastrophically in the NBA. It might have had something do with him reportedly drinking before Detroit Pistons practices in the 2000s.
The 2003 NBA Draft will go down as one of the greatest of all time. Four future Basketball Hall of Famers went in the top five. LeBron James went to the Cleveland Cavaliers at No. 1. Carmelo Anthony went No. 3 to the Denver Nuggets. Chris Bosh went No. 4 to the Toronto Raptors. Dwyane Wade went No. 5 to the Miami Heat.
In the middle of those four players and their eight NBA championships, sandwiched between them, there was a guy that went No. 2 overall to the Detroit Pistons. That guy was Serbian big man Darko Milicic.
While he won a ring with the 2004 Detroit Pistons, so many issues wrecked his promising NBA career. He opened up about it recently with Serbian news website B92, saying that he used to get drunk before Pistons practice.
Through a translator, Milicic is quoted as saying, “As a No. 2 pick coming from Europe, I thought I was sent by God, so I got in fights, got drunk before practices, spitting [at] everyone, but I was spitting [on] myself.”
Milicic would add, “So yeah, I was the problem….I could say I was too young back then, but I chose to go there myself and I obviously wasn’t prepared for what the league would require from me.”
The strangest part of this revelation is that Milicic was doing this as the 15th player on a championship caliber Pistons team. They won the 2004 NBA Finals his rookie season and lost in the 2005 NBA Finals to the San Antonio Spurs in his sophomore season.
Next: 10 Biggest NBA Draft Mistakes of All-Time
That era of Pistons basketball was really tight. Joe Dumars was in the front office. Larry Brown was on the sidelines. Richard Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace and Tayshaun Prince were the starting five. Then there was Milicic spitting on teammates and getting in fights. That’s unbelievable.