In the 2003 NBA Draft, sandwiched between LeBron James with the first overall pick and Carmelo Anthony with the third, the Detroit Pistons famously selected the raw and unproven Darko Milicic at #2. And as opposed to the Hall of Fame careers of James and Melo – as well as Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, picked fourth and fifth in the same draft – Darko was never as much as even a reliable NBA starter.
The Darko case has, quite obviously, long been held up as one of the worst NBA Draft decisions of all time, if not the worst. Yet a iconic member of that same Pistons era, Ben Wallace, is on the record two decades later as defending the decision. At least, in part.
An old video from a 2020 podcast appearance is once again doing the rounds on social media, and in it, Wallace openly espoused the idea that he was glad the Pistons did not choose Anthony after all. In Wallace’s view, Anthony’s different personality and immediate NBA qualities would have upset the balance of the Pistons – and perhaps, they were better off without him.
Less About Darko, More About Tayshaun
“If we would’ve drafted Carmelo, I honestly don’t think we would have ever won a championship”, said Wallace, in an appearance on the 120 Watts podcast. “Melo would have wanted to play right away. It would have had the potential to disrupt the team chemistry.”
“Tayshaun [Prince] would have never blossomed to be the type of player that he became. We won the championship off the back of the best block I have ever seen in my life [referring to Prince’s game-saving block on Reggie Miller in the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals]. That’s that type of grit and grind that team was about.”
At the time of the 2003 draft, despite having the second overall pick, the Pistons were not a rebuilding lottery team. They were already on the rise, a rugged, defense-first group coached by Larry Brown and anchored by Wallace, Prince, Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton. They were on the brink of contention, had won 50 games on their way to a Central Division title and Eastern Conference Finals run the season before, and needed not an outside chance of a savior, but perhaps the last piece of the puzzle.
Milicic, projected as the “next great European unicorn” before the word was even fashionable, was not ever going to be that. His non-rotation role did, as Wallace suggested, not disrupt or change the identity of the team’s core, and any talent infusion was addressed by the mid-season trade acquisition of Rasheed Wallace. Unfortunately, though, Darko never got out of that non-rotation role. Nor was he ever close to it.
Doomed To Fail
Milicic struggled to find playing time under Brown, who had little patience for any rookies and even less for the raw big men who struggled to grasp his defensive schemes. Darko’s confidence eroded as a result, and by the time Detroit won the 2004 title, he was little more than a ceremonial towel-waver, the Human Victory Cigar.
Over the next few years, his career saw him bounce around between the Orlando Magic, Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves, doing better than in his ignominious Pistons days but still never getting anywhere close to the level of his draft peers, and certainly never shaking the label of draft bust. And by his late twenties, he was out of the league entirely.
Carmelo Anthony, was, of course, the opposite. He became an instant star in Denver, averaging over 21 points per game as a rookie and leading the Nuggets to the playoffs, and finished up his career as a ten-time All-Star, scoring champion and Olympic icon. He was a great player. The question Wallace implies was whether he would have been a great Pistons player.
Never A Straight Melo vs Darko Choice
Wallace may well be right that Melo would not have meshed with the Pistons’ identity and Brown’s demands of selflessness, defensive intensity and ball movement, and that his addition may have negatively impacted the development of Prince. Anthony, even in his prime, was never known for those qualities, and also needed the ball in his hands to succeed as a scorer, in contrast to an egalitarian Pistons offense that thrived on balance and Hamilton’s movement.
That said, the pick never had to be a binary decision between Darko and Melo. And even if it was, surely the balance Wallace worried about upsetting could have been addressed. Notwithstanding the pick’s opportunity to provide the missing piece, it did not have to be the final move. Teams are forever in flux, even the best ones.
No one can ever say for sure how it would have gone, of course. Not even Ben Wallace, whose opinion is much more informed than everyone else’s. But what can be said is that the three players drafted immediately after Darko have all already been enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Whereas Darko limped to career averages of 6 and 4. They may not have won the 2004 title with Melo, but maybe they could have won three others.
Ben Wallace: Pistons Were Better Off Without Carmelo Anthony