Darko Milicic returns to basketball after 7-year retirement
Former Detroit Pistons center Darko Milicic is making a return to basketball in his native Serbia after a seven-year retirement.
Infamous Detroit Pistons legend Darko Milicic is returning to the hardwood, though no need to worry because it won’t be as a Piston.
Milicic, 34, is going to return after seven years of retirement to play in the second division of the Serbian League, his native country, according to basketballsphere.net.
His team, “I came to play,” is comprised of former national team members and hopes to assist the city of Novi Sad and the American Embassy, according to eurohoops.net.
"“I am glad that we will be able to help young people to grow older and that the action is primarily humane,” Milicic said, as translated by Euro Hoops. “Of course, we will do our best to create a competitive result. Take it easy.”"
Milicic has stayed in athletic shape while pursuing a kickboxing career after retiring from the NBA. However, he gave that up in 2016 to live on a farm.
The Pistons selected Milicic second overall in the famous 2003 NBA Draft in which Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade were selected immediately after.
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It was a franchise-defining moment. Though the Pistons won the 2004 NBA Finals in spite of the selection, it left Pistons fans thinking “what could have been?” Had they selected one of the aforementioned names, it could have led to multiple championships.
For Milicic, it was a career more rocky than the wooden roller coasters at Cedar Point. He played 468 games for six teams in 10 seasons. That’s an average of 46.8 games per season or 57 percent of games of a full 82-game slate.
His last NBA action was four minutes and 30 seconds of a Nov. 2, 2013 Celtics loss in which he missed the only shot he took, grabbed one rebound, had two turnovers and committed one foul.
Seven years later he will return to basketball in his home country.
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