Piston Executives Impressed with Darko

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Maybe his stats weren't record breaking. Maybe he didn't start or play 30 minutes a game. And his team didn't even make the quarterfinals.


But the Pistons say, so what?


Darko Milicic played for his national team in a high-pressure tournament. That's the important thing to people such as John Hammond, the Pistons' vice president of basketball operations.


After participating for the first time in NBA summer league play in July, Milicic played for his national team, participating in its run for a European Championship. That ended Tuesday, when France knocked Serbia-Montenegro, the defending champions, out of the tournament. It also marked the end of Milicic's first significant summer of basketball since the Pistons drafted him No. 2 overall in 2003.


And Hammond liked the results. In the four European Championship games, Milicic, a 7-foot center, averaged 10 minutes, 4.5 points, four rebounds and 1.25 blocks.


"I don't know if he went in to be a stopper, a scorer, or a passer," Hammond said. "He just went in and tried to contribute any way he could."


But what really matters, at least to the Pistons, was just that Milicic was there.


"This was a great experience for him, a great growth experience for him," Hammond said. "I could not think of any place else we'd rather have had him spend his time, where he would benefit like this."


In 2003, Milicic sat out of NBA summer leagues amid contract disputes between his club team and the Pistons, who had drafted him that June. And in 2004, he missed both the summer league and the Olympics after he broke his hand in the final minute of the Pistons' championship run.


But this year, Milicic, 20, fought for playing time on a Serbia-Montenegro roster filled with other NBA players such as Zeljko Rebraca, Marko Jaric, Vladimir Radmanovic, and Nenad Kristan.


In the team's final loss against France, a small team with athletic guards, Milicic played just one minute -- the final minute. But Hammond wasn't concerned.</div>

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