A well written piece on how G hates Darko so much. Nice G nice, I respect your opinion.

And yes, I too am not paid that much to play pro ball.

My thoughts are that back then, if fortune would have it that I was in Joe Dumars' shoes, I would have made the same draft choice -- Darko Milicic, a raw, young big from Serbia -- over his contemporaries Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

The thing is, Darko, like most immature young guys drafted at such a high position feel like they are entitled to something (example is Kwame Brown) LeBron of course is mature enough to know how to work. Darko was given a chance to show that he had the work ethic to devote himself to his profession. But sadly he did not show it.

After his first season under Larry Brown, he understandably pouted a lot but that should have changed under Flip Saunders when he was given a shot at playing time.

But I don't think he changed. And like most of us here read, it seemed like he was biding his time when he would be out of Detroit, away from the pressure of living up to his draft status, and the dwindling excuses for not putting in the time and effort.

Joe did the right thing in trading him. For the team and for the player.

He had to get something for Darko. His best mistake brought us a championship because there was no way of knowing anybody in that draft would have made the (non)impact Darko had.

So off goes Darko to the Magic, his chance for redemption.

I feel that Joe saw right in Darko as evidenced by his better performances in Orlando. He will be a good player in the coming years.

Unfortunately, he will see formidable opposition in the Detroit Pistons, the team he quit on. Which I hope will always kick his big Serbian behind.