Before the 200304 NBA season, the Detroit Pistons were licking their chops because of their good luck. They were coming off a strong run in the previous playoffs, where they made it to the Eastern Conference Finals but lost to the New Jersey Nets. With the core of their team, led by Rip Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, and Ben Wallace, intact and with a new coach in Larry Brown, the Pistons were poised to make another run at the title.
Add to that the fact that the Pistons held the second pick in the 2003 NBA Draft because of a 1997 trade that shipped Otis Thorpe to the Vancouver Grizzlies, and things were looking even better.
As the Pistons players looked at the 2003 draft class led by LeBron James, they became excited. It was clear that the second-best player behind "The Chosen One" was Carmelo Anthony . After all, the native of Brooklyn, New York, was coming off an unforgettable NCAA run, where he led Syracuse to the national championship as a freshman.
However, despite the temptation of adding yet another talented player to their already stacked roster, the Pistons made a controversial decision. They drafted little-known Serbian big man Darko Milicic instead. This move would go down in history as one of the biggest draft busts and missed opportunities in NBA history.
The players expected the Pistons to pick Melo
According to Tayshaun Prince , the Pistons had brought Darko in for a workout. Still, he had no idea who he was and how he played. In the same breath, they all knew who Carmelo was and what he could do, especially after a spectacular one-and-done season at Syracuse, where he averaged a double-double of 22.2 points and 10.0 rebounds.
"We all thought we were taking Melo. We knew Darko came and worked out for us, but in our minds, 'cause you know, we hadn't seen Darko. No one knew he came and worked out for us, but we ain't seen him. We seen Melo, you know what I'm saying? So we was like, 'Man, how do we luck up and get this pick with the team we got now?'" Prince said on the "Knuckleheads Podcast."
"At that point, it was like, LeBron, then Melo. It was just; that was what it was. It was no other thought," Tayshaun asserted.
Unfortunately, the Pistons' decision-makers had another plan in mind. They were concerned about losing talented big man Mehmet Okur in free agency (they did, as the big man went to Utah). Additionally, Detroit believed they already had their small forward of the future in Prince. These factors led them to take a chance on the unknown center from Novi Sad, Serbia.
"But we was all sitting there like, man, we sitting there in front of the draft, said we about to see this number two pick, and then we was like, it said Darko, we was like, 'Oh, okay, you know what I'm saying?' We were shook," Tayshaun stated.
Related: Michael Jordan on why guys shouldn't be able to jump from high school to NBA: "Something is affected by leaving college early"
The wrong place at the wrong time
Prince, a four-time member of the All-Defensive Team, though, defended Milicic, saying that how his career went wasn't all on him. Tayshaun admitted that they, as an organization, could have done better to support Darko, who entered the league at only 18 years of age. Being that young in a foreign country with a different language and culture and under immense pressure to live up to his draft status, the big man struggled to adapt.
"This wasn't all on Darko, yeah, right? When you draft a guy this age, like, you know, the organization got to take responsibility in this as well, you see what I'm saying? And as well as the coaching staff and us too. Like we tried to help Darko out, but we could have done more, absolutely," Prince emphasized.
Darko played only three seasons in the Motor City, averaging 1.6 points and 1.2 rebounds in 96 games. Although Milicic went on to have a ten-year NBA career, he will forever be remembered as the player chosen over future superstars like Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.
Related: "Instead of taking me to the court to practice, he dragged me around nightclubs" - Darko Milicic on his relationship with Rasheed Wallace
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