It Just Never Happened For Darko In Detroit

The NBA, historically, has had a fetish of dropping the first and/or last names of its superstars.

Someone says Dr. J, Wilt the Stilt, or Magic, you know who they're talking about.

Talk to even a moderate fan and mention Shaq or Kobe; they'll make the connection. Around these parts it has been Isiah, Worm, or VJ. Today it's Chauncey, Rip, or Sheed.

And Darko.

But Darko Milicic is not a superstar. He has not been, in nearly three seasons, able to get off the bench for more than a minute or two, and not more than once or twice a week -- if that. Yet he is never, ever referred to as "Milicic." Even Chauncey is sometimes Billups. Rip is occasionally Hamilton. And so on -- up and down the roster. But Darko Milicic, the second overall pick of the 2003 draft and possible Bust of Busts, has been simply Darko. One name status -- normally reserved for the game's top players. Or petulant rock stars.

Darko is gone now, traded away, shipped to Orlando in a move that was partly financial, partly sympathetic, and partly out of repentance. It was not all that much about basketball, in the end. The Pistons traded Milicic and backup point guard Carlos Arroyo to the Orlando Magic for center Kelvin Cato and a 2007 (or 2008) first round draft pick. But Cato may never play a minute for the Pistons; his acquisition was to provide salary cap relief. Cato's $8.6 million comes off the Pistons' books this summer, enabling the team to have more room to lock up free agent Ben Wallace this year, and Chauncey Billups in 2007. As for the first round pick, the Pistons might not use that either -- at least not as an actual draft choice. It could be packaged in another deal, heretofore unknown.

There is very little about this trade that has anything to do with what happens on the court. Darko never played. Arroyo's minutes were inconsistent, and that was before Lindsey Hunter returned from his injury. Cato is injured and has only played 23 games for the Magic this season. And, he'll turn 32 this August. So why else would you trade a 20 year-old for a 31 year-old? Why, for salary cap considerations. That's how the trading game is played in the NBA nowadays. Players' contracts are looked at before their contributions on the court. You are valued before you are evaluated.

It just never worked out for Darko in Detroit, and that's nobody's fault, really. Pistons President Joe Dumars thought he had a budding superstar in Milicic when he drafted him second overall in 2003, when quicker fixes like Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade were there for the taking. Dumars had plenty of ideas for Darko. He envisioned a boy giant blossoming into a towering man of immeasurable basketball dominance. He imagined Darko playing his way into the rotation -- first under Larry Brown, and again under Flip Saunders -- while at the same time learning about how to be a big man in the NBA. Joe Dumars thought that someday, if certain players moved on or retired, that Darko Milicic would be the next dominant center in Detroit.

Dumars' notion now seems like a ridiculous dream.

But if there's one thing Dumars has not been afraid to do, it's admit the errors of his ways and cut ties. He did it with Mateen Cleaves, a 2000 draft bust. He did it with Rodney White, 2001's failure. And now he has done it with 2003's mistake -- which is the biggest of them all. It is almost unheard of for a player to be drafted so high in any draft, in any sport, and receive as little playing time as Darko Milicic has in his 2 1/2 seasons with the Pistons. Especially in the NBA. A second overall pick in the NBA is a game-changer, a franchise-saver, a walking cash cow of endorsements.

It is not the 12th man on the bench with a nickname such as The Human Victory Cigar.

But that's what Darko Milicic morphed into in Detroit. It seemed as if he arrived in town with a ball and chain around his ankle that he could never remove. Some of it was his own doing, some of it was bad luck. There was a broken hand suffered in the waning moments of the Pistons' Game 5 clincher over the Lakers in the 2004 Finals -- an injury that prevented Darko from playing precious minutes in the summer leagues. But there was also loafing on the court. They said he dogged it at times, and didn't seem all that interested in making the most of his time on the floor. Flip Saunders gave Darko quality minutes in the preseason, hoping to see reason to work him into the top eight in the team's rotation. He would have liked to rely on his 20 year-old seven-footer -- would have delighted in being able to trust him in the second and third quarters, instead of those harmless moments known derisively as "garbage time" in the NBA.

It never happened. Didn't really come close, frankly.

So Darko is gone -- his last name gone with him, now a member of the Magic. Perhaps it is in the sun of Florida that he can discover his basketball playing mojo. Maybe he's just a late bloomer. Then again, maybe he will never be all that much in the NBA. That sometime happens, too, to high draft picks. You win some, you lose some.