NBA stopped Portland's Dirty Attempt to Deny Miles Work

Yeah, the Blazers obviously regret this nonsense and want the dark clouds to go away soon. Whoever in their organization that made the decision to fire off that letter was completely clueless about how the NBA works. This could bite them for a long time.

 

Wow, they were really kicking and screaming like a little toddler, eh?

Try to claim him off waivers to stash him, then sending a warning letter around the NBA. Shows how desperate they were to keep that cap space, LOL!

 

So they get to cut Miles and his salary because he was ruled incapable of playing in the NBA by their own doctors and then they go an claim him off waivers while they still say he is not capable of playing NBA basketball?? I used to like Portland, but now I hate Portland.

 

Why didn't they just buy his contract out?

 

Because it would have still counted against their cap plus they would have had luxury tax penalties. Also, Miles might not have wanted to settle for a smaller amount buy out.

 

Looks like they fell asleep in ethics class.

 

or maybe they cut it so smoke weed in the bathroom.

 

Seriously, where the heck is David Stern at during all of this? I hated Stern before, but if he doesn't penalize Portland for this brazen lack of respect to the NBA, then I will really despise him.

 

I have a hunch the decision on the email was pushed by someone on their legal staff with little knowledge of the NBA. I doubt Pritchard had anything to do with it other than he knew when the decision was made. Anybody with 5 cents of knowledge about the NBA would have known it would backfire big time.

Next, watch the Blazers announce a resignation within their organization. By summer, someone will take the fall so they can try to move away from this disaster.

 

Reading what Blazers fans have to say about all of this is infuriating. They claim their team is doing nothing wrong, and that they are the ones getting screwed. What the team did, especially trying to claim Miles off of waivers, is incredibly dirty and I haven't seen one Blazer fan criticize it. I know I would if it happened here.

 

I'm curious about the independent doctor who determined Miles would not be able to play again -- it seems he would have some sort of liability in all this mess.

I guess the main question I would want to know - is that doctor really independent through the league front office or was he hired by the Trailblazers and labeled "independent".

 

Who knows if the original doctor made a mistake or there was foul play...all we know is that the Blazers can't keep their story straight. Here is the front office's thought process on this:



Miles is unfit to play medically! He should retire and insurance will cover the salary, and we can remove him from the team because we believe he can't play anymore.

Fast forward....

Darius is trying to come back, but he can't play. I don't care what you say, NBA champion Celtics, he can't play. (Psst, hey other teams: He has off the court issues and he'll screw up your team, promise!!!!)

Oh, only 2 more games? Let's claim him off of waivers. I know we said he can't play, and that it's against the rules to circumvent the salary cap, but we're not signing him for that reason. Now we believe he is good enough to be the NBA. (But he won't play more than a game, believe me!)

We can't do that? No one else better sign him, because he's not good enough to play in the NBA. If you do it to mess with our salary cap, we will sue you. (What, what about us? I don't understand. We can't sue ourselves.)

The NBA is out to get us!!!

- Pritch