Blazers Threaten to Sue Teams for Signing Darius Miles

As Seely noted yesterday, if former-Blazer Darius Miles plays two more NBA games this season, it will cost the Blazers $18 million and force them to pay the luxury tax--money that's distributed to the other NBA teams. Perfectly aware of this vulnerability, of course, the Blazers have fired off a pre-emptive warning. If anyone signs Miles with the intention of messing up their cap space, they say, they'll sue.

This is a pretty stupid move by Portland. First, the organization that has been obsessed with rehabilitating its reputation after the arrest-filled early-oughts, and that is well-suited to play the underdog role with a young team in a small market, is behaving like a boorish corporate behoemeth, threatening gratuitous lawsuits and making local fans (they lobbied to get Seattle defined as part of the Portand media market) essentially watch their games on pay-per-view.

And what team is really going to have a hard time signing Miles in a non-tortious manner? The only way Portland has a hint of a case is if a team gives all sorts of signals that they're signing Miles to mess with Portland. Absent a paper trail and a ton of leaks, teams are in the clear. And they can thank Portland's latest missive for a timely reminder of that fact.