Former Celtic Darko Milicic to pursue a professional kickboxing career
Let's flash back to September of 2012 -- the Boston Celtics had just signed 2003's 2nd overall draft pick Darko Milicic and he said "I'll do whatever it takes, whatever I need to do to help this team. So now, if I have to go kill someone on the court, I'll kill someone on the court."
Less than two months later, Milicic asked to be released by the Celtics a few weeks into the season to tend to some personal family matters, and left the NBA. Now, it appears as though Darko is ready to continue a professional athletic career in a slightly more bloodthirsty sport -- kickboxing.
From Yahoo Sports:
Darko Milicic, who in 2003 was the No. 2 pick in one of the best drafts in NBA history, is on the verge of becoming a professional kickboxer. According to NBA Serbia, Milicic will sign a contract with the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO) on Wednesday, and he's spent the last year and a half away from basketball training for this.Milicic, 29, last played in the NBA in 2012. He asked the Boston Celtics to release him a few weeks into the season after only seeing five minutes of court time, and he said last summer that he was done with the NBA. He'll sadly go down as one of the worst draft picks in history, and former Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars has spoken openly about how the experience changed the way the team did background research.In 468 career appearances, Milicic averaged 6.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 1.3 blocks per game. Perhaps he was always meant to be a kickboxer.
At 7 feet tall, Milicic definitely has the height and reach to do well in the striking arts, and seeing that WAKO's highest weight class has no upper limit (91 kg/200 lbs and over) he will most likely have a sizable weight advantage as well (his last listed weight in the NBA was 275 lbs).
We got a taste of Darko working on his boxing in the video below from the 2012 off-season (the boxing segment starts about 3:50 into the video). Hopefully he has improved his technique a little bit since then and keeps his hands up more in between punches.
In any event, good luck to Darko in this next chapter of his athletic career from all of us at Celtics Life.
We got a taste of Darko working on his boxing in the video below from the 2012 off-season (the boxing segment starts about 3:50 into the video). Hopefully he has improved his technique a little bit since then and keeps his hands up more in between punches.
In any event, good luck to Darko in this next chapter of his athletic career from all of us at Celtics Life.
