Zo,

I think you missed the point of that article completely. It's a trend with the hardcore Darko fans. They launch into the same old story, the emotional baggage that every Pistons' fan is supposed to be saddled with.

If Darko wanted to play, he would have stayed in Europe for a couple years. But he rode the hype to a big paycheck and a lot of bench.

After seeing the money that Tayshaun re-upped for, that's gotta send a shockwave to DMC. WAIT A SECOND??!! I LEFT SERBIA FOR THIS?!?

Yep, his earning potential was in question. IT's obvious now, he's a max deal stud. But he would NEVER have earned that in the Motor City.

So he tanked. All the evidence he tanked is there. He isn't developing in Orlando, he's actually trying really hard for the first time since Eurobasket. Because he looked NOTHING like this in a Pistons uniform, even 5 months ago in the preseason.

So please, spare me the Pistons are bad, coaches are bad, starters are bad, NBA is bad, John Thompson is bad rhetoric.

DMC could have given like this, HELL he was supposed to give like this because he cashes those checks, but he didn't.

It will be VERY interesting to see what Darko does when he becomes a restricted free agent. VERY interesting. It will also be interesting to see how he responds to any playing time bumps in the road.

__________________
Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

OH, and I'll admit, Darko is one hell of a player. He could be a super great one. But not in Detroit. The #s weren't right.

__________________
Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

I am willing to go on record right now. The young Serbian learned something else in Detroit.

When his contract time comes up, he will not go for the max contract. He has learned that it is important to build something and both he and Dwight will take less than the max to stay in the building mode as long as he is still getting the respect and PT that it takes to get it done.

I still think Memo did the same thing. He did not go for the max contract; he went for the PT and the chance to help build something. BTW, he had 29 last night.

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Things appear to be at their darkest . . . . . . . . . just before they go totally black!!

Excuse me... "spare you." Spare you the facts? Because that's what they are.

That is total BS Micro, I'm not missing the point on anything. This is exactly what he looked like in preseason, I still have the PM's from our conversation about Darko's play in the preseason, remember when we spoke about his fine play in the preseason? and you went and posted "Zo's been telling me that Darko and Delfino are kicking butt and taking names in the preseason. Is this true fellas?" as a matter of fact I recall in that conversation we were having. You even said that you didn't see hardly any of the preseason games. (I could go check, though)

So how can you sit there and say "he looked NOTHING like this in a piston uniform. Even five months ago in the preseason."?? when it's quite the contrary. He played really well back then.

He's shown these exact skills, plenty of times, while in a piston uniform. Just not in garbage time that you guys seem to hold so near and dear.

And it's not an excuse when people say that it got to the point that he just quit trying in garbage time because he knew that it would never transpire into more game time. No matter how good he did. So why even try? Nothing was ever going to come from it one way or the other. That was obvious. Simple as that. And you can't argue against that. If he never got more time after playing really well in meaningful minutes, why on earth would he believe it would be any different from his garbage time performance? the truth is that it wouldn't have. And you call that sandbagging?? It wasn't sandbagging, he was just simply beaten and just gave up.

And now that he finds himself getting force-fed the minutes that he should have been getting in Detroit, he's ecstatic and rejuvenated. It would be the exact same situation if we would've played him here. Look man. The kid wants to play, he doesn't want no part of a championship that he has nothing to do with, heck who would?

Oh, and he could have been a great player with Detroit, if only the coaches would've played him.

Its a crazy backwards world..

"So why even try?" (say what..?)

Besides being hired as a professional - I can think of 10 million immediate reasons why he should've tried.

How anyone can say (with a straight face) he had a right to give anything less than 100% from the minute he pulled on the jersey is totally beyond my understanding. What world are you living in? What do you do all day? He learned team play? Say what? When did isolating your game become team play?

All of the guys that hung like lint off his jock aren't vindicated by his current play, you've been violated! It's just the opposite. He never gave at the Pistons office.

He had two viable choices, work his ass off to out-play the other bigs or work his ass off and out-wait them. He chose neither.

Instead he stunk the joint up during any game time he was given. No sane person can revisit his Pistons history to re-write the script, it's in the frickin record books. He tanked his game time to get out'a dodge. Everyone knows it and everyone acknowledges it.

The fact that other players said he could play only proves he made no real effort on the floor. It substantiates the opinions of all those that said he wasn't making a real effort, that he wasn't giving us fans or the Pistons his best game. Those are the only opinions being vindicated by his current play.

He murphyed all the lintballs and now they want to lay claim to some hidden knowledge. What is it? That he lacks personal integrity? That he has the soft underbelly of lazy housecat? That you're willing to sway in the wind like a roadside weed to defend a guy that just sucker punched you in front of the whole world?

Joe d and an assortment of others all said he had game. We paid for his game but what we got was gamed. This isn't rocket science and the earths rotation isn't spinning backwards.

Sorry but you can't claim victory when your pants are hanging down around your ankles, especially when it's your guy that tugged them down. The emotional investment some have made to defend this cats honor after he 'Vinced" us borders on insanity.

Now take off your Piston wear and go sit in the corner cause you've earned a lengthy timeout...

__________________
"Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down"...Jimmy Durante

I'm really having a very hard time buying this conspiracy theory. Coaches (all coaches) play to win. They put the players on the floor who give them the best chance to win. Period. Not just the American players. Not just the black players. The best players to win.

Darko was here for almost three years. I started out as a big supporter. I remember seeing him come for out of nowhere his first game or so and get some rediculous blocks. I couldn't believe it! Fast. Lightning Fast. Not to mention 7 feet tall.

On many a lottery team, he would have instantly been given playing time. Everyone agrees on that. But he wasn't on any lottery team. He played for a team Contending for a championship, and on this team, the coach plays the players that give the team the best chance to win. So despite Darko's amazing talent, he was obviously not the best option to win.

Which doesn't excuse his lack of effort! The guy signed a contract, cashed the checks, and gave almost nothing. Yeah, I remember the blocks in preseason. I remember the Darko crossover driving the lane (that was insane!). But I also remember Darko not trying to get a rebound. Not even lifting his hands. I saw him duck from a rebound once. I saw him step aside when a guard was charging the lane. Just get right out of the way. "Here ya go. It's garbage time, who cares!"

As for the lawyer analogy someone made earlier: when I graduated from college I had a well respected degree and a couple of years of experience working as a college intern. I had letters of recomendation from professors I had worked with on research projects. I came to my first job well qualified. And for the next six months I worked the copy machine, did the coffee runs, and handled the mail. Certainly beneath my abilities. But they were paying me, and that's what they wanted me to do. It was a test. A test to see if I really wanted the job. A test to see if I was a team player.

Darko failed the test.

__________________
"Eastern Conference regular-season champs, baby," said Chauncey Billups. "This is what we set out for when we started the season in training camp. We did it and we're happy." (2003)

Oh yeah. Another thing. I never thought the guy was sandbagging. I thought he might be retarded. (I'm serious) I coulnd't figure out how a guy that tall, that quick, with those great passing instincts could stink it up so bad. I figured he was just slow and couldn't figure out how to play the game. Kinda like rainman with a jumpshot.

So much for thinking that the trade would restore the peace around here.

Meanwhile it's a great kick to visit Orlando forums and watch guys frothing that "Darko is better than Howard." They're already counting championships over there, but the Magic keep losing and Darko still does a couple of bad things for every good thing, as he did in last night's game against the Suns.

At the heart of this whole puzzle is a missing piece -- without which we are as helpless as Kennedy conspiracy buffs without the Zapruder Film. I refer to Darko's legendary "Chad Ford Workout" at John Jay College. Doesn't it seem at least a LITTLE bit likely someone would have taped it for future reference while sizing up draft prospects? Hmmmm ...

My current take on all this is that the Pistons saw a passionate talent who was actually just passionate about getting out of Serbia. Now he's got the playing time he wants, the good money, the Florida coastline for his jet ski. I think he will be a good player in the league as he gets more comfortable with his skills, but never the player that fires up so many imaginations. Which will suit him just fine.

Just how long does that test need to last? If you were still grabbing coffee and making copies after 3-4 years would you still want to be at that job?

Considering this point, each of us has to raise their game. To think above the same emotional arguments we get caught up in everyday. The coach did this, or it was hopeless, or Joe wasted the pick etc.

As Pistons fans, we're blessed with a team that is considered (along with the Spurs) a model for NBA unselfishness. It's not the norm, it's the exception.

Ben is grossly underpaid, has been for years. Chauncey is playing at bargain bin prices for elite PG performance. Sheed actually re-signed a smaller deal AFTER WINNING A CHAMPIONSHIP.

Joe has built a culture here. Not every player fits. Not every need is met. The only consistent theme in Detroit for the last 3 years has been, "Do you want to win?". That's been the selling point to guys like Davis and Dice. The reason why Flip took the high pressure job for a negligible pay increase.

Do you want to win? Will you sacrifice minutes to win? Will you pass up a big contract, to win?

Aguirre did it. When Jack traded A.D., Aguirre was a cancer in the Mavs organization. A true "me first" player. But when placed in a situation, with great players who demanded accountability, and a winning attitude, he was even willing to let the younger Rodman play chunks of his minutes, because it gave them a better chance to win. That was the same sacrifice that Dantley complained about, even as the Bad Boys were getting closer and closer to being World Champs. "The Teacher" couldn't see the bigger prize. Immortality. Universal respect.

Darko's not unique in this. Baron Davis tanked in New Orleans. Zo tanked in NJ and refused to report to Toronto. Carter basically sold his soul to escape the Great White North.

All 3 resurrected their careers with new teams.

Joe's message when drafting J-Max that he was looking for Pistons DNA was pretty obvious. He'd lost Memo, and he had to have the feeling that the Darko pick might not work out either. Not because either player didn't have talent or were bad people, but that they might not be willing to compromise their earning potential to maintain a high work ethic and settle for less minutes.

As a Pistons fan, Joe's unique house is dependent on all of the pieces being in it for the same reasons. That's hard to do. Incredibly hard. Everyone has an agenda, and Joe can only cater to so many of those individual agendas before the whole thing starts to unravel.

Would I take $4 million a year to play garbage time? Absolutely. That's why we love these guys. It's a working class team, for working class folk. We can identify with them. We understand what it is like to be cut, or traded, or rejected. Deep down, we all have a sense of pride that has been trampled or overlooked.

That's why we raise our game, and that is why they raised theirs.

__________________
Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao