Tayshaun Prince recently appeared on the ‘Knuckleheads’ podcast, where he opened up about the Detroit Pistons’ surprising decision to select Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony in the 2003 NBA Draft. Prince recalled how the Pistons players were all but certain the team would draft Anthony, as they had seen the future Hall of Famer perform and knew his potential.
“The players, we all thought we were taking Melo. We all thought—like, we knew Darko came and worked out for us, but in our minds, because we hadn’t seen Darko play. He came and worked out for us, but we hadn’t seen him.”
“We had seen Melo. So we were like, ‘Man, how did we luck out and get this pick with the team we have now?’ I think how management looked at it was that they found their future small forward in me, so they decided to take a chance on Darko.”
“Mehmet Okur, who we had and was super talented, there was obviously a chance we were going to lose him in free agency, which we did. And then obviously Sheed, so they were like, however they want to call it, ‘We’ll take a chance on Darko.'”
“But you know, if we had taken Melo, man, obviously we know what could have been, right? But we were all sitting there, in front of the draft team, about to see the number two pick, and when it was Darko, we were like, ‘Oh… okay.’ You know what I’m saying? We were shook.” (36:32)
At the time, the Pistons were in a strong position, having the second overall pick despite already being a championship-caliber team. Prince mentioned how management likely viewed him as the team’s future small forward, which could have influenced their decision to take a gamble on Milicic, a relatively unknown European prospect.
Prince also noted that the team was anticipating the loss of Mehmet Okur in free agency and the potential acquisition of Rasheed Wallace, which may have swayed the front office to go for size in drafting Darko.
The choice to draft Milicic has been widely regarded as one of the biggest draft missteps in NBA history. While the Pistons won a championship in 2004, many, including Prince and former teammate Chauncey Billups, believe the team could have achieved even greater success had they selected Anthony.
Billups once speculated that the Pistons would have won multiple championships with Anthony and that LeBron James might have left Cleveland even earlier due to the dominance of a Melo-led Detroit team.
The “what if” scenario remains a lasting topic in NBA circles, and Prince’s candid recollections only add fuel to the debate about how the Pistons’ dynasty could have evolved with Carmelo Anthony on the roster.
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