I agree that there is more going on here than meets the eye. It is quite unusual for either Joe D. or Flip to criticise a player publicly, and now both have done so with respect to Darko within a few weeks of one another. First, Flip went public with a negative comments about Darko's lack of effort, and now Joe D. has made negative comments about the quality of his play to S.I. (see link provided by Micro above). My guess is that Joe and Flip have concluded that Darko has a fairly serious attitude problem, and that some or even most of this concern is based on his behaviour in practices, team meetings, etc. If they were just concerned about his play (as opposed to his attitude), I do not think they would have gone public with their criticisms.

Last year, Darko really did seem to be sulking at times while on the bench, and his frequent lack of enthusiasm for what his teammates were doing on the court was in marked constrast to, say, the kind of cheerleading Sheed regularly engages in when he is sitting on the bench. I have not paid much attention to Darko's demeanor on the sidelines this season, so I cannot really comment on whether there's been a change for the better (or for the worse) in that regard.

I thought earlier that this might be a kind of breakout year for Darko, but that now seems to be a very remote possibility. It may be that if he has any chance of success in the NBA, it will have to be with a different team.