D-Miles Screws Blazers a Game Early
Posted Jan. 14, 2009 at 6:30 am by Mike Seely
Up until last week, I was rooting for the Blazers harder than any other team in the league. No, not in the overhyped, unproven "every former Sonic fan will instantly become a Blazer fan" way, but because I admire how they've built their team through the draft — and the local connection (B-Roy, Martell Webster, Nate McMillan) certainly doesn't hurt. But once they threatened to sue any team for signing Darius Miles, who, at the time the threat was made, needed to play in only two more games to count against Portland's salary cap for the next two years (his $9 million annual tab will prevent the Blazers from being major players in the free agent market), I've been rooting against them. Not for them to lose, per se, but for D-Miles, whose career Portland disingenuously declared over a couple years ago when their true motive was to further scrub away their Jailblazers image, to stick it to them. And last night, he did, in more ways than one.
Let's start with the obvious: He played last night for the Grizzlies, in their loss to the mighty Cavaliers. That means D-Miles needs just one more second of game action to dash Portland's hopes of luring a top-flight free agent anytime soon (never mind that the should be more than fine nurturing their current roster or using any number of surplus pieces to improve via trade). But if Portland is serious about carrying out their lawsuit — and we'd be shocked if they were, considering it's one of the more frivolous legal threats we've ever come across — it's what else Miles did last night that should nail that coffin shut. First, he re-signed with the woeful Grizzlies and not an arch rival like Utah or the Lakers. Hence, it would be pretty tough to prove that Memphis' motives are anything but pure here. But perhaps most damaging was the fact that Miles scored 13 points in 13 minutes against the best team in the East (and the franchise that traded him to Portland, ironically). It doesn't really matter if that eruption came in garbage time or not; any basketball player who can do that against any NBA defense most certainly has at least a little gas left in the tank. If Memphis — or anyone — had acquired D. Miles and put him in with 30 seconds to go so their team's starting small forward could get a standing ovation, Portland might have a claim here. But last night, D-Miles proved that they're pissing in the wind.
Topics: NBA
