Yardbarker: Darius Miles

5 Things to Rant About

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 23:21:52 -0500

1) I would sign Darius Why not? You sign him to a 10-day contract and play him in garbage time and all of a sudden the Portland Trailblazers don?t have cap space this summer. Is this a jerk move? Yes, but the NBA is a cutthroat competition so why wouldn?t you cut your competitions throat ...

Blazer's Miles From Resolving Conflict

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:28:56 -0500

If the name Darius Miles did not bring fear to the Portland Trailblazers organization when seeing him on the court, it does now. Miles is causing a BIG stir in the NBA, affecting all NBA teams and getting the NBA Players Association involved.

When Darius Miles was under contract with the Trailblazers he suffered what was thought to be a career ending knee injury. The injury caused him to have micro-fracture surgery in 2006 and he was released by the Blazers in April 2008 after not participating in any NBA games for two seasons.

One of the big screen actors on The Perfect Score, with Scarlet Johansen, Miles started out this pre-season on the world champion Boston Celtics roster and was waived by the Celtics after playing in six pre-season games. He later signed with the Grizzlies and played in two regular season games when he was released before his contract became guaranteed.

Last Friday was when all the chaos started. Miles officially became a free agent, having already participated in eight games this season. According to the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), Miles will be due $18 million by the Blazers if he plays in 10 total games this season. If he plays two more games with any team, the Blazers would owe him $18 million from their prior contract with Miles. This additional sum would put the Blazers over the cap this year and force the organization to pay a luxury tax (much like the MLB has in place), of around $8 million for this season.

The Blazers were aware of this and even thought of picking up Miles again, just to sit him so he could not play the remaining two games on his contract (similar to Marbury's ordeal in NY). The craziness officially began when Miles signed a ten-day contract with the Memphis Grizzlies. This short-term deal to see how Miles could do, scared the Trailblazers enough for team President Larry Miller to send out threatening emails to all 29 other NBA teams.

In Miller's email sent on Tuesday he threatened to sue any organization if a team attempted to sign Miles to "damage the franchise financially." He threatened and challenged all 29 other NBA franchises in one email.

The NBA responded a few days ago by sending out a league wide email which stated: "This is to inform you that Darius Miles has cleared waivers as of 10 a.m., EST, Friday, Jan. 9, 2009. He is now a free agent. The NBA has received the e-mail sent last night by Portland to all teams. Under league rules, teams are free to sign Darius Miles to a Uniform Player Contract if they wish to secure his services as a player, and any such contract would be approved by the NBA."

NBAPA executive director Billy Hunter later expressed his disappointment in Portland's threat on Miles and added that the players union will be filing a grievance against the organization as well. The NBAPA believes that the league should have no collusion and that a player should be able to participate in the NBA as long as he is physically able to.

To make matters worse, the Grizzlies hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers and not only did Darius Miles play in the game, but he added 13 points in the Memphis loss.

The only good news for the Portland Trailblazers is that the NBA will not file a grievance against the organization for the President's threatening emails.

With Miles looking good in his return it appears likely that he will play again in Memphis's game this today. While the Grizzlies are hoping for a big game out of Miles, the Blazers are hoping he will wind up on waivers ASAP and not lacing up his Nikes.

We will see in ten days if Miles get a contract extension, or if Memphis only intended to ruin Portland's summer by busting their salary cap space and causing additional fines. Now that all emails and threats have been issued with no action, only time will resolve this situation.

Darius Miles - Stuffs Himself and gets his First Bucket

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:22:39 -0500

There is nothing like a break away dunk to get your game flowing after screwing the Portland Trail Blazers over. Well sort of...thanks for this gift big guy! Oh and here is his first bucket in almost 2 years.

While We’re Waiting…

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:57:35 -0500

While We

Memphis Don’t Resign Darius Miles

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:29:20 -0500

So aside from the intention of putting the Blazers in the position to pay the luxury tax, I don?t see any reason why the Memphis should sign Darius The Memphis have resigned Darius Miles to another 10 day contract as they said they were ?impressed? with what they?ve seen with Miles. Ok, I ...

Grizzlies Call Blazers' Bluff

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:34:48 -0500

Darius Miles became a chess piece rather than an actual athlete at some point during the past few seasons. After some oft-injured years in Portland, he was let go after a doctor determined he hadn't recovered from a right knee injury, and Portland prez Larry Miller and GM Kevin Pritchard used some interesting legal math to where if he did not play, his contract came off the Blazers' books.

Miles is two games away from a 10-game trigger that makes the Blazers responsible for his salary, thus making it near impossible for them to acquire a free agent. So, Miller sent out an email to the other owners threatening legal action if anyone re-signed Miles after the Grizzlies cut him earlier this week (he'd been with Boston earlier for six pre-season games, and played in two games for the Grizzlies.)

Well, the Grizzlies just told the Blazers to eff right off, picking him right back up and re-signing Miles to a ten-day contract -- and don't be surprised if he gets garbage time in two games to get the Blazers to pay up the $12 million left on his contract.

Everyone in the NBA is rightfully in a shvitz over this because this isn't the NFL at this point; to an extent, the NBA still has some balance as a player's league and a better union. David Stern hasn't gone down that kind of draconian path yet (and to an extent, he can't, with player contracts being guaranteed), and so far, quite a few owners and GMs are calling out Portland on this crap, which is really asking for collusion by any other name.

Your Honor, I'm Just A Blogger, Unfamiliar With All Legal Jargon?.

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:31:46 -0500

But there's no way the Blazers have any legal legs to stand on regarding this: "Team Presidents and General Managers, The Portland Trail Blazers are aware that certain teams may be contemplating signing Darius Miles to a contract for the purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions. Such conduct from a [...]

We Double-Dog Darius You

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:19:38 -0500

((HT: Ian Thomsen at si.com))

Okay, so Darius Miles ((pictured, thanks/Joe Murphy-Getty Images)) , formerly of the Memphis Grizzlies was supposed to be hanging them up for good two seasons ago when he was a Portland Trail Blazer. He underwent microfracture surgery to repair his right knee. The ...

Celtics Waive D-Miles To Get Roster Down to 15

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:37:55 -0500

The "Boston Globe" reported Monday that the Boston Celtics have waived veteran forward Darius Miles in order to get the roster down to 15 players. An Association franchise is allowed to carry up to 15 players with 12 active players during the regular season. Miles signed on as a free agent with Boston in August, he was released last season from the Portland Trail Blazers after doctors determined he was no longer physically able to play.

Celtics Cut Darius Miles; Trailblazers Rejoice

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:24:07 -0500

Darius Miles whose knee injury was deemed career ending by Portland Trailblazers team doctors was attempting to buck the odds and restart his NBA career.

Miles Suspended 10 Games

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 06:44:52 -0500

Well, Darius Miles' potential Celtics career is off to a shaky start. From Reuters: (http://www.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUSN1929862920080919)NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boston Celtics...

BREAKING NEWZ: Celtics Sign Darius Miles

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:48:43 -0500

Boston.com reports the Celtics have announced that they have signed free agent forward Darius Miles. Our T.J. Donegan had this to say a few weeks back in his linkz of the week. Darius Miles Puts Acting Career On Hold, Could Play In Green Ian Thomsen writes a great Inside the NBA column-esque thing for SI.com and he has a really good piece on Darius Miles, the former high school standout and Clippers first-round-pick who injured his knee two years ago and had his injury deemed "career-end...

Rejoice Blazer Fans!!

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:26:29 -0500

The end of an era of head bops, strip clubs, underage sexual allegations, drugs, weapons, and 28's on Monte Carlo's are over. Its to late for us to get our money back, but it is not to late to save some dignity. Darius Miles is now gone, and for now off the books. Rejoice to the heavens!!

11 in a row

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:29:36 -0500

Today we played the Seattle Supersonics and we beat them to get our 11th win in a row. We didn't play our best game, but we ended up winning by like 15 or something like that. In the spirit of Christmas i wore a red valor (i dont know how to spell it) suit jacket. The first thing i hear when i walked into the arena was "what is that, velvet?" from Coming To America. I laughed so hard but i ended up hearing it like 10 more times in the night. My family is also here for the holidays so thats good. In all it was a great Christmas. And one last thing i didn't get anything Darius Miles told me that its the first year of me being Santa Claus im not getting anything anymore im gonna the be the one giving out stuff, so here to being a grown man.