{
  "id": 7229389,
  "title": "Ben Wallace Makes Stunning Carmelo Anthony Claim About the Pistons’ 2004 Championship",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/14/ben-wallace-makes-stunning-carmelo-anthony-claim-about-the-pistons",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-14T02:40:11.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Sports",
    "slug": "yahoo-sports",
    "url": "https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/ben-wallace-makes-stunning-carmelo-024011091.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the 2003 NBA draft, the Detroit Pistons had the opportunity to select Carmelo Anthony, but they chose to draft Darko Milicic instead. The NBA history has seen the Pistons win the championship in 2004, defeating the Lakers in five games. However, former Pistons player Ben Wallace suggested that had they drafted Carmelo instead, they would have never won a title. Wallace stated, \"If we would've drafted Carmelo, I honestly don't think we would've ever won a championship.\" He explained that Carmelo would have wanted to play immediately, potentially disrupting the team's chemistry. Meanwhile, Milicic only played in 42 games, averaging just 1.4 points and 1.3 rebounds throughout his rookie and post-season careers.",
  "summary": "The Detroit Pistons had a chance to draft Carmelo Anthony in 2003. However, they went in a different direction and used their No. 2 pick to draft Serbian former basketball player Darko Milicic. In the meantime, the Denver Nuggets chose Anthony with the third overall pick. It didn’t work out for Milicic. He failed to [...]",
  "key_points": [
    "Ben Wallace claims Pistons wouldn't have won 2004 title with Carmelo Anthony.",
    "Drafting Carmelo would've likely disrupted team chemistry, Wallace says.",
    "Darko Milicic played 42 games, averaging 1.4 points and 1.3 rebounds."
  ],
  "editors_take": "Ben Wallace's claim that drafting Carmelo Anthony would have prevented the Pistons' 2004 championship suggests team chemistry was crucial to their title win, and Carmelo's playing style would have disrupted it.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}