Darko Milicic admits many of his NBA struggles were his own fault

Darko Milicic, the second overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft will go down as an all-time bust, even though he played 10 seasons in the league. Controversy always followed Milicic, but it wasn’t until just now that he has admitted that some of the problems stemming from his disappointing career were his own fault. It’s quite obvious he never really found his proper role in the league. He was drafted to a Detroit team that was competing for a championship and could never find a role that fit with the Pistons. He then bounced around to the Magic, Grizzlies, Knicks, Timberwolves, and Celtics. It was ten seasons and millions of dollars, but Milicic never found his way.

In an interview with Serbian site b92, as translated at r/nba, Milicic opened up about his career in a wide-ranging interview that touched on many of his career’s problems.

I had issues with everyone, and that was caused by me playing just for myself. My goal wasn’t to silence the critics, it was to silence my ego. Tonight I want to feed my ego, so I’ll play a great game against Duncan or Gasol. Tomorrow, we have a totally irrelevant game against a center that’s 10 times weaker so I’ll put up another great game and become a consistent player because that’s what they want from me. But I simply couldn’t, I wasn’t ready or willing to put in the work...

The next quote is probably the most troubling and comes from his time with the Knicks as they were trying to trade him to the Timberwolves.

After that I went to New York, where I continued doing stupid stuff. The coach finally got fed up, so I was doing pushups and situps during games and drinking milkshakes in the gym. So I decided to go back to Europe, I was young enough and could still get back on track. However, NY wanted to trade me to Minnesota. I met with 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 fuck 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 2 weeks, and if I’m not feeling it I’m free to leave. My first year there actually went great.

Given all the trouble that Milicic faced in the league for ten years, it seems as if he’s finally found his happy place now outside of the NBA.

“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.”

Darko may have been a bust in the NBA world, but it’s good to see he has found peace in his own life.