Future Hall of Famers Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony discussed numerous topics together on Instagram live on Friday evening. The list included their favorite Kobe Bryant moments, LeBron James apparently saving Anthony’s life in the Bahamas and the Pistons passing on Anthony for Darko Milicic back in 2003.
NBA writer Sam Amick tweeted quotes from the Instagram exchange:
D-Wade mentions Darko Milicic to ‘Melo, who grins and says, “Who?”
Wade: “Darko…the guy who went ahead of you (in the 2003 draft).”
‘Melo: “Oh, your phone broke up when you said that… (smile grows bigger).
Milicic was the number-two pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Pistons after the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted LeBron James.
It didn’t take long for Milicic to respond to his two draft classmates.
“We’re not kids, we’re grown men, I hope you’re mature enough to understand that life is full of rises and falls,” Milicic told a Serbian media outlet (as transcribed by Heat Nation).
It appears Anthony and Wade were making fun of Milicic, but he didn’t have any grudges towards Anthony and Wade.
“About these stories, well wasn’t my story already told, they thank God made it – I didn’t,” Milicic said. “To them I wish all the best as always and I salute their careers, all the best in further life and lots of success and less judgement.”
Milicic was not given much playing time during the 2003-04 season unless it was garbage time in Detriot with the Pistons, because their head coach at the time, Larry Brown, wasn’t playing Milicic in a position that would make him successful.
“Advice to them, because I think of them as more or less the good guys, is to not judge and mock when, thank God you didn’t go through the path that I went through,” Milicic said, as translated by Heat Nation.
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Larry Brown Thought the Pistons Were Going to Draft Carmelo Anthony
Back in 2019, former Pistons coach Larry Brown was a guest on Sirius’ NBA Radio with Justin Termine and Eddie A. Johnson. Brown revealed that when he signed on as the Pistons coach before the 2003 season, he was under the impression they were going to draft Carmelo Anthony out of Syracuse University with the second pick.
“What I had understood, we were going to draft Carmelo and then all of a sudden they decided on Darko,” Brown said, per Syracuse.com.
Brown urged the Pistons to bring in one of the other top prospects, such as Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade or Carmelo Anthony, to play against Milicic, but it never happened.
“All I asked is why don’t you bring in Carmelo, or (Dwyane) Wade or (Chris) Bosh and let them workout against Darko?” Brown said. “Any smart agent is gonna say, ‘No, I’m not going to let my guy workout against somebody else.’”
He shared that he had alarms going off regarding Milicic before they drafted him.
“We brought Darko in twice and he couldn’t go through a workout with me without getting totally exhausted,” Brown said.
Hall of Famer Larry Brown tells @TermineRadio & @Jumpshot8 he thought the Pistons were going in a different direction in the 2003 Draft when he was their Head Coach
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Darko Milicic Responds to Carmelo Anthony & Dwyane Wade