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Serbian Darko Milicic was destined for greatness. He came to the NBA in the 2003 draft, which included a host of future giants in the league: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Joe Dumars, president of basketball operations for the Pistons, selected Milicic as the #2 pick, something he would later catch hell for from fans, particularly because he could have had any of those other players except for Lebron James, the #1 pick. Milicic, who is now a farmer in Serbia, was a disaster, averaging 6 points and 18.5 minutes over his 10-year career which ended in 2012.
He played for the Pistons from 2003-2006 before being traded to Orlando. He played for several other teams after that.
Now, Milicic, 31, tells why he was such a bust in NBA in an interview with Serbian news website B92.net, portions of which were translated, according to Yahoo! Sports. He talks about getting drunk before practice and having a very bad attitude.
Here's part of that interview:
I'd do a lot of things differently now. It's true that I ended up on a team that was trying to win a ring, which rarely happens to a #2 pick, but in the end, we're all looking for alibis. I could say i didn't get a proper chance. However, that's simply an alibi; it's up to a young player to prove himself, work hard and wait for his chance. My approach was completely different, as a #2 pick coming from Europe I thought I was sent by God. So I got into fights, got drunk before practices, spiting everyone, while in the end, I was spiting myself.
I had issues with everyone, and that was caused by me playing just for myself. My goal wasn't to silence the critics, it was to silence my ego. Tonight I want to feed my ego, so I'll play a great game against Duncan or Gasol. Tomorrow, we have a totally irrelevant game against a center that's 10 times weaker so I'll put up another great game and become a consistent player because that's what they want from me. But I simply couldn't, I wasn't ready or willing to put in the work...
So yeah, I was the problem. That initial dissatisfaction probably led to me starting to hate and not enjoy playing. There were some situations where I've already scored 20 points, but in my head I'm thinking: "When will this game finally end, come on, let's pack it up and go home." I just had to feed my ego, I couldn't care less what's going to happen the following week. My whole approach since coming to the US was just wrong. 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
