Coming to terms with Darko Milicic

Darko Milicic was selected before Carmelo Anthony and the Detroit Pistons won the NBA championship in 2004. You can not separate those facts.

Here are two important facts. First, the Detroit Pistons drafted Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in 2003. Second, the Pistons became NBA champions the following season. Facts are great because they are true. Something less great is a counter-factual. As the name implies, they are inherently less true.

Unfortunately, another fact is that facts do not always make for great conversation at a bar, or fill eight hours of sports talk radio. Thus, we find ourselves trapped in an endless loop of what might have been.

Thanks to…