The man worked his butt off to get himself fit, the Blazers can't screw him. what goes around comes around. I hope someone signs him. His knee may not be 100% but its good enough to play for him to play a scrub role/practice player for a team. The Blazers knew all along when they agreed to release him that if he plays 10 games this was gonna happen and now they're trying to prevent the man from cashing in on his hard work
Portland waived him, therefore he no longer belongs to them. Most teams are paying players that aren't playing for them. That is the results of guaranteed contracts. Portland didn't have to cut him they could have reached a buyout with him. They tried to take the cheap way out and get him declared unfit so they could be off the hook for counting his salary towards the luxury tax. If they wanted to keep him around they would still have to count his salary towards the tax, and they would be in the same boat they are probably going to be in anyway.
Watching those two videos how could there not be a few teams interested in Miles ? I understand they are just short highlights, but he could definitely fill a small role somewhere in the league. It may be that his knee is swelling up like a balloon after he plays, but I haven't heard/ read any reports on that issue.
I think it's funny that all this lawsuit stuff happened because of the media. Portland was trying to keep it quiet about the 6 preseason games counting towards the 10. Teams were not as likely to sign Miles thinking they'd have to play him 8 games, which would mean they'd probably have to sign him for the rest of the season. The misunderstanding was reported on Wednesday, and you get a lawsuit threat by Friday.
It's been added to the agenda for the meeting between league reps and the Players Union. Portland just made a bad situation a whole lot worse.
I don't think some of y'all read the quote from the threat "Darius Miles to a contract for the purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions." I don't think they are trying to prevent him from ever playing again, thus Miles wouldn't have a suit against them. They are trying to prevent someone from picking him up, playing him for 10 seconds in 2 games and and cut him with no intentions of ever utilizing him. I think there is a difference.
From True Hoop: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-38-27/Darius-Miles--Cap-Space--E-mails--Oh-My-.html
Unbelievable. - Stern should fine Portland - Players union should file a grievance - Miles should look into suing Portland - Other teams should take turns signing the guy to 10-day contracts so they collectively share the tiny risk of successful litigation by Portland - Other teams should remember this crap from Portland's management for any future dealings with them. The nerve...
that's good info King. I was saying this is a Players Union/League Exec thing, not a Portland vs. the rest of the owners of the NBA thing...
I really like Portland - but this ticks me off. I don't want them to have $9M against them...but c'mon, Miles deserves a chance of playing. You don't see NY b****ing over their bad contracts. They should have just bought him out instead of taking the route they did.
What's not legal? The blazers wanting to sue or a team signing him for the two games? And any team has a right to sign him even if it's to hurt them. It doesn't matter. The made this bed and now they need to sit in it. The Blazers have pissed off a lot of teams. Other Teams are ready to stick it to them and I don't blame them.
NBA Rules litigation claim unlawful, Miles can be signed NEW YORK -- Darius Miles cleared waivers and became a free agent. That much was clear Friday. Yet everything surrounding the Miles affair -- the possibility of him returning to the NBA this season, and the negative salary-cap ramifications he would cause for the Portland Trail Blazers -- took a complicated and controversial turn Friday after the club sent a memo to the 29 other NBA teams threatening litigation against anyone who signs Miles or claims his contract off waivers if it is solely for the purpose of burdening the Blazers' cap. The matter has been added to this afternoon's agenda at a previously scheduled meeting between NBA and players' union attorneys, ESPN.com has learned. In the statement Friday that announced Miles had cleared waivers, the league acknowledged it received the e-mail Portland sent to all teams and seemed to indicate that it would support any club signing the veteran forward. "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," the statement read. If Miles plays two more games, then his Blazers contract, worth $18 million total for this season and next, would count against Portland's salary cap and force the team to pay the NBA's luxury tax next summer. The contract had been removed from salary-cap and tax considerations when the Blazers deemed Miles medically unable to play and released him. lastname "Darius Miles is focused on one thing -- that's returning to play basketball. That's it. He's not focusing on any of those other issues," said agent Jeff Wechsler, who was on the phone Friday morning with union attorneys trying to devise a strategy to confront what many around the league were describing as an unprecedented situation. The Blazers' e-mail, signed by team president Larry Miller, states that if any team were to sign the free-agent forward "for the purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers' Salary Cap and tax positions ... the Portland Trail Blazers will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation." The full text of the e-mail, according to reports by SI.com and Yahoo! Sports, reads: "'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 team would violate its fiduciary duty as an NBA joint venturer. In addition, persons or entities involved in such conduct may be individually liable to the Portland Trail Blazers for tortuously interfering with the Portland Trail Blazers' contract rights and perspective economic opportunities. 'Please be aware that if a team engages in such conduct, the Portland Trail Blazers will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation.'" Teams had believed the collective bargaining agreement said Miles must play 10 regular-season or postseason games in a season for the $18 million to count against the Blazers. But six preseason games Miles played for the Boston Celtics counted toward the 10. Before the Memphis Grizzlies waived him on Tuesday night to avoid guaranteeing his contract for the rest of the season, Miles served a 10-game drug-related suspension and then played two regular-season games, pushing his total games played to eight. Had they not waived him, Miles' contract with Memphis would have become guaranteed for the remainder of the season. It was not clear whether the Grizzlies had planned to re-sign Miles to a 10-day contract after he cleared waivers.
Not to go into the Blazers corner on this (because I still hope someone screws them), but I don't know how empty a threat it is. I have no idea what the wording of the teams' partnership agreement is. There very well may be a clause that creates a cause of action if the Blazers can prove that a team just signed Miles to hurt the Blazers and not to help their own team. Let me reiterate that I have NO idea if something like that exists or not (not specific to Miles of course), but who knows - you know their partnership agreement must be huge.
cavs owner's response here bravo. i was a blazers fan becuase they're a young and exciting team, plus i really enjoyed watching roy and aldridge in college. now, i may have a new least favorite team.
Don't take your hatred out on Roy or the rest of the team. Their management are the ones being dicks. That and their fans are quickly becoming annoying.
I'll still be rooting for the players and coaching staff of the Blazers...and I hope they make the playoffs too. I just don't know what to think about the management. Granted, if I was in their position I would probably be panicking as well...but like the Cleveland owner stated - there has got to be a better tactic than threatening a lawsuit. Nonetheless, reading over the wording of the Blazers email. It doesn't seem they are holding Miles back from any employment opportunities. It seems if a team signs him and actually wants him, they're fine with that. They just don't want a team to sign him and play him for a couple minutes in 2 games and dropping him...which is understandable.
If you actually were a lawyer, you'd know that is a contractual issue, not an issue of whether something is legal or not legal. Nothing Portland has done is illegal. Portland suing another NBA team would not be illegal. Whether it has any merit in a court of law, of course, is a different question - one that has nothing to do with legality.
