If you had a choice of either of these guys, irrespective of the team they would be going to, which one would you want? WHich one will have a better pro career, and why, in your opinion? ( Please specifiy whether you have seen one or both play.)
melo is an all star n clearly the obvious choice but at the end of the day, who's won more? darko. as a piston. :grin:
Darko. I'll trust Doc. If Doc says Melo needs to be in the d league and that the celtics need Darko's passing ability and his 6 fouls then we need Darko.
i think every team would've answered those questions with "Darko" back then. Darko was seen as the next great center. Great size, mobile, no injuries, guard skills combined with post up skills and toughness, humble, good character, basketball no lifer. Or so everyone thought. The first night Darko came to Detroit, he went to a strip club. 2003 was the height of Euro bigs. Young Dirk was leading a 60 win team, young Pau looked awesome, Vlade Divac was at the core of a contender, an old, overweight Sabonis with no legs was somehow playing near an All Star level, Big Z in Cleveland was an All Star that year despite losing a lot of quickness due to early injuries. And Darko was supposed to be better than all of them. While Melo was supposed to be a clutch scorer with winner's mentality, but everyone knew he didn't play defense and settled for jumpers. As a Lithuanian, i was so pissed at the time that Yugoslavians managed to grow up another super talent while our guys kept getting injured.... (Yugoslavia was Lithuania's perennial rival in FIBA)
On that note, Chad Ford on Darko after the draft: http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/story?id=1572845
