Seven-foot center Darko Milicic, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft, had trouble putting on a happy face Thursday when he met with Wolves president of basketball operations David Kahn in New York to discuss Wednesday night’s trade.
Seven years of rust with four teams, including three straight months on the New York Knicks’ bench this season, has led Milicic to believe that no NBA team, not even the Wolves (13-42), could offer him a legitimate opportunity to play.
“He sounded like a guy who has had a traumatic NBA career,” Kahn said. “He was visibly frustrated. He told me his confidence was quite low. This guy has had a different type of experience in the league.”
“I told [Cornstein] I’m not mentally or physically ready to play in any other city, to play for any other team,” Milicic said at the time.
After meeting with Kahn, Milicic’s position hasn’t changed much, the Wolves’ president said, particularly since it means uprooting his wife and infant daughter. But he swallowed his disappointment over the transaction — “He sees this latest trade as just one more incident that has befallen him,” Kahn said — and agreed to report to the Wolves in time for tonight’s game with the Bulls.
Said David Kahn: “There were calls, as there always are. There was interest. But I wouldn’t say we were ever on the brink of doing anything.”
“This trade gives us a look at a player that was drafted extremely high and had tremendous potential when he first came into the league,” head coach Kurt Rambis said at practice on Thursday. He fulfills a need on our ballclub. Seeing him when he first came in Detroit, he was a very versatile big guy, he could defend, he could block shots, he could shoot the basketball from distance, he can pass, he can score inside. It just gives us an opportunity to work and look at a player that was drafted very high and see what the future holds for him and this organization.”
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