PHILADELPHIA — Marko Milič didn’t have money for a car, so he hitched a ride with a friend twice a day to drive the 30 miles between his Slovenian hometown and the city he was playing in.
After two years of carpooling, his buddy dreamed up an idea for Milič to score his own ride. They would put on an All-Star Game, and Milič — a teenage basketball star in his home country — would dunk over a car at halftime. The event would air on TV in the winter of 1997, and the car dealer would gift the vehicle to Milič.
“I said, ‘Let’s do it,’ ” Milič said.
Milič never practiced the dunk, but he pulled it off, running the length of the floor and lunging over a green Honda Del Sol. He slammed the ball through the hoop, picked up the rebound, and punted it into the crowd. The car was his, and his life was instantly changed.
His plans to play college basketball in America were dashed as Milič said the free car ruined his eligibility. So he instead declared for the NBA draft and was selected that June by the 76ers in 1997′s second round. The only highlight TNT aired of the draft’s 33rd pick — a 6-foot-6 forward with the explosiveness to shatter a backboard — was Milič's dunk over the car.
The rise of Luka Dončić
Milič's NBA career was brief (he played just 44 games without a start over two seasons) but he was the first Slovenian to make it.
In a way, he paved the way 25 years ago for Luka Dončić, the Slovenian star who is guiding the Dallas Mavericks through the Western Conference playoffs. Dončić scored 35 points on Sunday as the Mavs blew out the Suns in Game 7 of a series they started with a two-game deficit.
The Western Conference Finals began Wednesday at the Warriors, and Slovenian fans are dreaming of watching their hero win an NBA championship. And perhaps none of it happens without Milič dunking over a car.
“OK. I was first, but I can’t say I opened up a path for him,” Milič said. “He had more tricks than me when he was just 16 years old.”
Milič never played for the 76ers as he was traded four months after the draft to Phoenix. But he did spend the summer of ‘97 in Philadelphia, playing with the team’s rookies in a league at Temple and taking part in training camp.
He explored Philadelphia — “a city with a soul,” Milič said — with his wife, wandered around North Philadelphia at night in flip flops, and got lost inside the King of Prussia mall.
“Malls in Slovenia back in the day were entrance and exit,” Milič said. “Your malls in America are like cities. Me, just speaking basic English, I got lost a couple times.”
The Allen Iverson era begins
Larry Brown was the team’s first-year head coach, Pat Croce was the president, and Allen Iverson was the reigning Rookie of the Year. The foundation for one of the greatest eras in franchise history was being set, and Milič was there to see it.
“Iverson was the coolest guy,” Milič said. “He was real. He used to wear hip-hop fashion, and Coach Brown said we need to wear ties all the time. He comes again dressed like he was. They fined him like $500, funny money to him. I remember the next game, he comes dressed like that again. Billy King was the GM and he said, ‘I need to fine you again.’ He gave him a check for the rest of the year and said don’t bother me anymore. This is how I’m going to dress.”
“He bought all of his friends cars, and they followed him with open windows and the same music playing. It was really cool. Even with all the millions, he stayed real. I have a lot of respect for him.”
Milič was expected to stay in Europe for a few seasons after the 76ers drafted him and grow his game overseas before arriving in Philadelphia. But the allure of the NBA was too much. Milič changed his plans and joined the 76ers immediately.
“The NBA was for me another galaxy,” Milič said. “We watched the NBA on television once a week, 20 minutes of highlights. So for us, it was like going to the moon. Say you’re an actor and someone calls you and says, ‘Hey, you want to play with Jack Nicholson in a movie?’ You don’t say, ‘No, tell Jack to wait a couple of years when I’m going to be ready.’ This was such a dream come true to go first from my country, this part of the world, to the NBA.”
Ready for the Sixers
Not only had Milič dunked over a car, but he led Slovenia’s Union Olimpija — a small team on a small budget — on a Cinderella run to third place in all of Europe. He believed he was ready to play for the 76ers, dreaming of doing the things that Dončić is doing now for Dallas.
But unlike today, the NBA did not have a large contingent of European players, so Milič felt that the 76ers didn’t quite understand the quality of basketball he was playing back home.
“I was playing serious basketball here in front of 20,000 people in the EuroLeague Final Four, but Coach Brown was teaching me stuff in practice the things you would show to young kids because they didn’t have the view of basketball outside of America back then,” Milič said. “I was a little sorry that they didn’t give me a chance to play because I was ready. I was energized and motivated. Coach Brown liked veterans more and experienced players, but it was a great time.”
“This was the first time that I saw how professionalism works. In my country, we don’t have a lot of money. So whoever brings more, plays more. It’s not going to matter if Derrick Coleman has a big contract and I’m a rookie. If I’m a better player, I’ll play. But this was the first time that my dreams were broken when I saw that the practices were just to stay in shape and not to prove yourself or see who’s going to get the minutes. Of course I wasn’t better than Jerry Stackhouse, Jimmy Jackson, or Iverson, but I’m 100% sure I could have been at least a guy in the rotation.”
Training with Luka
Milič is now the manager of Slovenia’s national team, which allows him to train every summer with Dončić. Milič said Dončić was the first player to arrive last summer to the national team’s Olympic training camp, coming in just three days after the Mavs were eliminated from the playoffs.
The players aren’t paid; they’re playing just for the pride of their country. And Dončić led Slovenia to the semifinals last summer in their first Olympic Games. The NBA no longer feels like the moon as the small country in the Balkans is basketball crazy thanks to Doncic.
“In the evenings, now when you go outside on the streets, you’ll see many lights in the buildings,” Milič said. “It’s only two things: People are watching the Dallas Mavericks or they’re watching naked movies. All of the NBA games are on television. It’s a totally different story.”
Milič spent parts of two seasons with Phoenix before heading back to Europe in 1999. His NBA career never took off — even his plans to jump over a Ferrari fell through when the league canceled the dunk contest in both of his seasons — but he was a superstar in Europe. Milič played for European giants like Spain’s Real Madrid, Turkey’s Fenerbahçe, and Italy’s Fortitudo Bologna and was a hero at home in Slovenia.
He returned in 2006 to Union Olimpija — the Slovenian team he was playing for when he dunked over the car — and led them a season later to the Slovenian championship with Luka Dončić’s father, Sasa, coming off the bench.
Milič is reminded of Dončić’s father every time he watches the Mavericks as Sasa Dončić played with the same style. Sasa Dončić, like his son, was built like a power forward but had the skills to play point guard.
“He was an incredible talent,” Milič said. “His father was making the same tricks but against much lower competition than Luka.”
Union Olimpija’s biggest win came that season against Russia’s CSKA Moscow, who would go on to win the European championship. Union Olimpija didn’t even have their own gym as they played in a hockey arena. It was David vs. Goliath, Milič said. And David won on a buzzer-beater layup by Milič.
An 8-year-old Luka
The players stormed the court and mobbed the hero. Amid the crowd on the court was an 8-year-old Luka Dončić, who hung around his dad’s team that season before his own career began to blossom.
“We were always together,” Milič said. “Him and Goran Dragić, they were younger, but they always hung out with us and listened to our bad jokes in the locker room. I think he built his personality in the locker rooms with us.”
Dončić is now one of the NBA’s brightest stars and is the sports hero of his country. He is a three-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA player, and soon could be an NBA champion. But Dončić has never jumped over a car.
“He’s too smart,” Milič said. “For me, without a jump shot, that was the only option.”
