Blazers front office makes mistake

In an email I’m sure you’ve read or read about the Portland Trail Blazers have issued a warning to the other 29 NBA teams. Letting them know that if they sign Darius Miles with the purpose of affecting the Blazer salary cap and tax situation then they will contemplate legal action. Below is a copy of the email from Team President Larry Miller.

'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.'

And to follow up on that here is a short summary of the situation.

The Blazer released Miles after he was declared unable to perform because of a medical injury. Once this happened the Blazers still have to pay Miles but the remaining $18 million ($9 million for this season and another $9 million for next) does not count against the cap, unless Miles plays 10 games in either this season or next. So far Miles has played in 6 preseason games with Boston and 2 regular season games with Memphis, who recently waived him.

For me this all boils down too the Blazers over reacting. If the Blazers felt that teams are thinking of signing Miles just to put his contract back on their books they should talk to the league about this and not threaten the other teams. This is a league were you have to work with other teams in order to get better. In addition David Stern is not a guy you want to piss off. I think this should have been brought to his attention first and handled from a league stand point.
It feels almost like a bullying statement. It makes me feel like the old regime is back and trying to lay down the law.

And I’m sure that Darius Miles “People” will have issue with this. Obviously it would be easy to argue that the Blazers are trying to hinder Miles career.

Look Portland signed him to this contract. When it became more than clear they did not want to have Darius on the team they had a few choices, cut him, trade him, or try to get him to retire. They decided that his knee was bad enough that an independent doctor might rule that he was unable to play on the knee anymore and could file for a medical retirement. They knew the risks when they decided to go down this road. It was the best choice they had and they went with it. Good for them. But now is not the time to whine about it. The Blazers have made many strides over the past few years. Let’s not revert back, hey you win some and you lose some and the Blazers front office has had quite a winning streak as of late. Perhaps it was time for a loss.