It couldn't have been more perfect in a certain way. Top to bottom, they were all there.įord: Darko was just phenomenal. Every shot, every move, he just looked phenomenal. I remember they were talking about it the day before.Ĭornstein: A number of guys filtered over to the other gym. It was an impromptu workout.Ĭhris McCosky (Pistons beat writer, Detroit News): I don't think it was a coincidence. He asked Cornstein if he could come over. There's just a curtain that was separating the two gyms and I walked over to (Pistons president) Joe Dumars and asked if he knew who was working out next door and he said he didn't. It was a pure coincidence.Ĭhad Ford (draft analyst, ESPN): Darko had just arrived in New York a few days before that. It was the same time we did it every day. It was a regular day where Darko was working out and our other guys who were in the draft were on the road so he was in the gym by himself. It wasn't set up as a workout for the Pistons. It was the day of the lottery and we used the gym at John Jay as our draft training gym. Marc Cornstein (Darko Milicic's agent): I remember it so well. The Pistons went to John Jay College in Manhattan, N.Y., a popular spot for visiting NBA teams, for their morning shootaround. The lottery was also on the night of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals between the New Jersey Nets and the Detroit Pistons. With Dirk Nowitzki becoming a superstar and Yao Ming a superstar in the making, teams began jetting off across the world to try to find the next international star, and a 17-year-old with bleach-blond hair named Darko Milicic became an obsession for many who did. The whole thing is a great read but as a public (dis)service, I've excerpted all the Darko- and Detroit-pertinent sections. While most Pistons fans are all too familiar with the process that led to the selection of the 7-foot Serbian stiff, if you believe in good karma as we head to another uncertain lottery (and ideally the last one in Detroit for several years), you owe it to yourself to read all the gory details.Ī little pain for hopefully a lot of gain on draft night on Thursday. LeBron James, the Akron, Ohio-born prodigy whose high school games were broadcast by ESPN, went first to the Cleveland Cavaliers.īut Detroit had a choice between the following players: Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony, David West. The Pistons didn't have a chance to pick the player who might go down as the best ever. If you were picking in the top five you were supposed to get a star. Watch out, Orlando Magic fans.īut this was the draft of the can't-miss prospects. In fact, after compiling that list I'm starting to think that the second overall pick might be cursed. The fact that Milicic didn't live up to his draft status isn't exactly shocking.Įven if you only look at draft picks from 2000, the following players have been selected second overall: Derrick Williams (2011), Evan Turner (10), Hasheem Thabeet (09), Michael Beasley (08), Marvin Williams (05), Jay Williams (02) and Stromile Swift (00). 2 draft picks bust all the time in the NBA. In fact, throughout the piece you could put that at the end of just about every statement about how great this draft was, as Pistons fans are so painfully aware. What could come next but doesn't are the words ". It has ended up producing nine All-Stars, a handful of franchise players and two Finals MVPs, and seven years later, it spawned the greatest free-agent class ever.
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Many who work in the league called it one of the deepest drafts in history. The 2003 NBA draft took place on June 26 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. At the very beginning of part 2 of ESPN's mega oral history of the 2003 NBA Draft, we get this statement: