Whatever Happened to Darko Milicic | HoopsHype (2024)

The Pistons did not make a lot to transitioning him from playing overseas to playing in the NBA. The Bucks (in regards to Giannis Antetokounmpo), on the other hand, did an amazing job of understanding he is a young person, we should do everything to make the transition as good as possible. Put him in the D-League, develop him, put no pressure on him, see what happens. He (Antetokounmpo) was not that great in his rookie season, but you could see the potential,” Chad said during his recent appearance in the ”World of Basketball” podcast with Fran Fraschilla on SiriusXM.

We ride in silence for a minute. There aren’t many stoplights here and the road is a little bumpy and the radio is on, with Serbian music playing low. It seems as if maybe I jabbered the conversation into submission. But then, abruptly, Darko says, “That’s weird, you know, about Weis, because I kind of feel like Old Darko died. Like, when I think about myself, or myself when I was playing, I feel like I’m sort of thinking about someone who is dead.”

The worst was in Memphis. Darko’s wife, Zorana, who was living with him then, calls that his “crisis period.” The team was losing. Darko was infuriated. And the walls in that apartment looked like cottage cheese, a mess of bubbly bumps and curds. The sequence was familiar: He would come in, hammer on the walls and go to sleep. In most cities, he came to know the local contractors who could run over, throw some putty up and do a quick cover-up job with whatever paint they had handy. “You know you have exactly white, and then the other white, and then gray?” Darko says of his patchy walls. “That was my house.”

But Rivers liked Darko, liked having him in practice. So he welcomed Darko into his office and listened as Darko told him he had come to say goodbye. “In the center position, if something goes bad for the team, you have [Jason] Collins, you have [Fab] Melo,” Darko said. “So I’m packed and going home.” Darko recalls Rivers being stunned. “Darko, what are you talking about? Where are you going? You are going to play tonight.” Darko was unbowed. “Doc, that’s it. I’m not playing tonight, I’m not playing ever again. “Thank you guys for trying. It didn’t go well. I’m out.”

Darko’s passion is real. When an unexpected snowfall damaged about 10 acres of apples this spring, he went out with the workers to try to salvage the crop. And last year, when he walked through the orchard during the first picking season, he experienced a sensation that, he says, was foreign to him: pride. “I was just really happy,” he says. “You know, we were picking our apples. Ours.”

“My approach was completely different, as a No. 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.” Milicic, drafted ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, averaged 1.6 points and 1.2 rebounds in 96 games with the Pistons. He went on to play seven more seasons in the NBA, with stops in Orlando, Memphis, New York, Minnesota and Minnesota.

How is Darko doing now? Inquiring minds would sure like to know. “I’ve gained 90 pounds since I stopped playing,” he said. “I’m at 350 right now. I’m working at my farm and enjoying that kind of production. I take walks through my fields and watch the process, which makes me really happy. I’m still pretty inexperienced at this, so I like to learn, seek guidance, go to seminars. I’ve created my own peace of mind, and I’m enjoying it. There are always problems like in any other field of work, but I’d rather do this than build skyscrapers in the city, because I’d end up shooting myself. I think this is the most positive story of them all – food production and food in general is the future in every sense.”

“I met with [then-Wolves GM] David Kahn and told him: ‘Don’t trade for me for the love of God. I don’t want to play in the NBA anymore. I’ll ruin your team. I’ll f*** up the team chemistry. Do not trade for me. When it’s not working it’s not working.’ He told me to join them for two weeks, and if I’m not feeling it I’m free to leave. My first year there actually went great. “My experience in the NBA was a catastrophe, because I’m a born winner. I don’t like losing, even in card games.

Darko Milicic: “It’s just simple, my career was how it was and I don’t miss that. I went to the NBA as a kid, barely 18, didn’t have the attitude I should have had.”

Darko Milicic: “I thought as a kid that talent was God-given, but it’s not. God gives you talent and you should use that talent with the real meaning of that word. I was stubborn. Maybe being young had something to do with it. There was option then of going to the NBA or staying in Serbia because Hemofarm knew that if I went to NBA they would get more money than they would get if I went to some European club. Here you had poverty and money was there.”

Darko Milicic: “Their system is cruel and I don’t like it. If a young player doesn’t succeed, they don’t look after him. That sucks. You have players who are first or second in the draft that get a chance to play. I didnt get the chance. LBJ is a killer now, but he did get a chance in his first year, he could shoot from the stands if he wanted. I barely got the chance. I had that situation in Orlando where if I shoot from perimeter, my coach Hill would yell, “Pass to Howard.” In Detroit nothing went right. Larry Brown always told me to go near the basket. They offered me a $40 million, four-year contract in Orlando, and then their manager blows it off, out of nowehere. My manager told me he would deal with it. I said OK, but just not Memphis. Anywhere but there. And, of course, I went to Memphis. Then I got injured, didn’t play much.

Darko Milicic: “I wanted to go back to Europe but then the Minnesota offer came. I tried to talk them out of of signing me, I said I won’t practice, I will make trouble in the locker room but they were persistent. They told me give it two weeks, if it doesn’t work you can go. I accepted, it was nice and I played but we didn’t win. Rambis was fired and after Adelman came I realized it’s not gonna work. Pekovic started playing well, and I thought, “Never mind, I’ll come off the bench.” But it just didn’t work. And then I just quit.

Darko Milicic: “They offered me contract in Boston. I didn’t want to go there and not play. They said they would play me.”

Darko Milicic: “I can’t play with American players. They only talked about who dunked on whom, who crossed over whom. I was weird to them because I didn’t think that way.”

Darko Milicic: “It’s all funny to me. I finally get a chance to play and (Mutombo) starts taunting me and daring me to fight. Why would I need that? I didn’t understand half of what he said. I mean, he’s been there 20 years and still doesn’t know the language well enough. Nobody in particular annoyed me, but Kobe Bryant is the dirtiest player with the things he does on the court… But without a doubt he is a beast. He was amazing.”

“I don’t miss basketball. I live very well, thank God. I have my interests, interests in agriculture,” says Darko Milicic in an exclusive interview for Blic.

Former NBA center Darko Milicic, a 7-foot Serb who spent 10 years with various teams after being the second overall pick in the 2003 draft behind LeBron James, has lost his first kickboxing fight. The 29-year-old Milicic sustained a bloody cut on his left leg in the first round of an exhibition match Thursday night against Serbian fighter Radovan Radojcic. The World Kickboxing Association bout had to be stopped in the second round on doctor’s orders. “The next time, it will be better,” Milicic said. “I’m invincible.”

Sasha Vezenkov is officially a member of Olympiacos again signing a five-year deal that will pay him a total of 18,5M euros net, making him the second highest-paid player in the history of Olympiacos after Josh Childress. Olympiacos has offered Vezenkov one of the biggest contracts ever in European basketball history, both on salary and duration which translates to 3,7M annual salary.

1 hour ago – via EuroHoops.net

Stephen Curry: I’m taking it one step at a time to be honest. I think that’s the only way that will protect my happiness. Also, it allows me to enjoy being myself when I’m out there playing. And I’ll continue to make the decisions that are best for me and for my career at the end of the day when it comes to just the imagination. I want to win. Let’s put it this way, it’s a longwinded way of saying that it if it is a situation where you’re a bottom feeder and it’s just because you want to stay there, I’d have a hard time with that. But I don’t think that’s going to be the reality.

1 hour ago – via Andscape

“Julius Randle has become this overly criticized offensive player. He does bring a lot of value to what this team does. They’re not just going to trade him to trade him. If they trade him, it’s because they’re getting something that they think is awesome and will make them better right now. I think it’s overstated how people talk about how they played without Randle in terms of ball movement and offensively. What we saw was that Jalen Brunson ended up running a lot of pick-and-rolls with Isaiah Hartenstein, who’s not there anymore. Hartenstein kind of turned into that short-roll creator with Mitchell Robinson at the five.”

1 hour ago – via YouTube

Chicao Bulls: Transaction: We have waived Andrew Funk. Thank you and best of luck, Andrew.

1 hour ago – via x.com

1 hour ago – via FC Barcelona

“Evan Mobley signed his five-year max extension this week. I don’t know how many of the details have been reported, but like Cade Cunningham, like Scottie Barnes, and like Franz Wagner, there is no player option in the fifth year. Teams successfully pushed back against that. From what I’ve heard, the All-NBA language is as follows: If he makes first and second team, first or second Team All-NBA, he will get bumped up to 30% of the cap. If he makes third team, it’s 27.5% of the cap.”

1 hour ago – via YouTube

Chauncey Billups: “We always like, ‘Man, we would have won at least three chips.’ And I say it all the time, I be on them. I said, ‘Bron would have had to leave Cleveland a lot earlier than he left.’ They never was going to beat us. They never would have beat us.

1 hour ago – via YouTube

Carmelo Anthony: “In my situation when I was in Denver, we was in the playoffs every year. We was 50 plus wins. Like we was building something in Denver, so I didn’t want to leave. So why take a three-year deal? No, I’m locked into this five-year deal. And it was like five years, like 85 million or something like that. And I got ridiculed for taking a five-year deal. Like, what? You know where I come from? I’m not leaving no money on the table.”

1 hour ago – via YouTube

Carmelo Anthony: “I’m over here like, whatever y’all going to do, y’all going to do. So I get the call and they say, yo, it’s a lockout coming. Yo, we taking a three-year deal. Right? So let me think about that. Call my agent at the time, which was, I think I was with Bill Duffy at the time and Calvin Andrews, and I’m like, three-year deal? Yo bro, it’s no conversation. I’m staying. I’m taking the 85 million for five years. I’m staying in Denver. I’m happy.”

1 hour ago – via YouTube

Carmelo Anthony: “I’m happy. I’m winning. I’m in Denver. We building something, right? We got new powder blue uniforms. Like we popping out there, right? So I don’t want to leave this to go do something that I might regret later down the line. And also at that time, I wasn’t ready to go partner and team up with nobody because I was building my own thing in Denver. So to leave my own thing and go team up with somebody, it probably wouldn’t have worked because we were all young and we all going down our own paths.”

1 hour ago – via YouTube