Darko Milicic is a bust. He is not a productive player in the least bit. He will generally hurt you when he is on the floor.
Those are all obvious statements.
But here he is about to enter his 10th year in the NBA. It is a career which has made him about $50 million dollars to do virtually nothing for five different teams. And soon, he will play for a sixth.
Some team out there will pay him to play. And even if it is the league minimum, it will be $1.3 million dollars (Well, actually, because he was amnestied, he’ll get paid $5.2 million this season, but one team other than the Timberwolves will willingly pay at least some portion of that).
And, believe it or not, there’s more than one team willing to pay him… including the champion Miami Heat. And that would make for an interesting quirk.
Milicic was selected No. 2 in the 2003 NBA Draft, after LeBron James was taken by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Carmelo Anthony then went No. 3 to the Denver Nuggets, Chris Bosh No. 4 to the Toronto Raptors and Dwyane Wade No. 5 to the Heat. James and Bosh since joined Wade in 2010 free agency, teaming to defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder in last month’s NBA Finals.
Like James, Bosh and Wade, Milicic also has been part of an NBAchampionship, as a seldom used rookie reserve with the Pistons in 2004.
Oh, did I forget to mention Darko has a ring?
If Miami doesn’t roll the dice on Darko, their biggest competitor in the East might.
Cornstein confirmed the Bulls’ interest to ESPNChicago, indicating that he was trying to explore different landing spots for his client. Milicic was amnestied by the Minnesota Timberwolves last week.
The timing of the Bulls’ interest is curious given they are going to have to decide on Omer Asik’s future in the coming days. Asik agreed to a three-year offer sheet with the Houston Rocketsearlier this month and plans to sign it later this week.
Yup, there seems to be a competition for Darko, which just goes to prove one thing: The NBA is so desperate for 7-footers, any one of them has the potential to land a job (See: Brown, Kwame).
Darko is in demand. He is going to continue to get paid. And his NBA career is already more than twice the average length of an NBA career.
So go ahead and make Darko the butt of your jokes… but he is the bust that laughing all the way to the bank.
