Is Darko Milicic leaving the NBA?
Darko Milicic was the highlight of the Boston Celtics preseason. His time in spotlight, however, was short-lived. He had five minutes of court time in the season opener and has not seen the court since.
When he didn’t travel to Detroit with the team this past weekend, some questions were raised as to why he stayed behind.
Sources say that he has been in a back and forth decision about leaving the NBA for the season to return to his ill mother who is in Serbia. This is obviously a difficult decision for Milicic, and there are other factors that are involved in making it.
Milicic is not happy with his lack of court time with the team. In recent years he has been considering leaving to live in Europe permanently.
Celtics’ coach Doc Rivers said he stressed to Milicic the importance of his decision and told him to take his time in making it.
Now the question will be who will replace Milicic if and when he decides to leave?
The obvious choice for the Celtics would be Kenyon Martin. They had considered signing him in the past, but instead chose Jason Collins, Chris Wilcox and Milicic. It would be probably that they would be in talks with Martin, but the Celtics won’t rule out the idea of leaving the spot open to see who else becomes available.
Martin has struggled to find a team who is willing to sign him and said he is not sure why it’s been so difficult. In his 12 NBA seasons with the Nets, Nuggets and Clippers, Martin has averaged 13 points and seven rebounds.
“If someone calls me tomorrow, I don’t care who it is, whether it’s losing or winning at this point,” Martin told Yahoo! Sports’ Marc Spears earlier this month. “If someone calls me tomorrow and wants me to come in, I’m going. “
