The circus has come to Portland

[ThunderCover]

TORONTO –- One of the strangest NBA plots ever will thicken Saturday because Darius Miles will rejoin the Grizzlies with a 10-day contract.

One day after the Portland Trail Blazers threatened to possibly sue any team that signed Darius Miles, the Memphis Grizzlies decided to return the free-agent forward to their roster.

If Miles plays in two games for the Grizzlies, the $18 million remaining on his previous Portland contract returns to the Blazers’ salary cap.

Miles’ agreement with the Grizzlies ends a wild 24 hours that began with the Blazers sending an email threat to the NBA’s other 29 teams. Late Friday afternoon, the Players Association filed a grievance against the Portland franchise, alleging collusion.

“We are shocked at the brazen attempt by the Portland Trail Blazers to try to prevent Darius Miles from continuing his NBA career,” the union’s executive director, Billy Hunter, said in a statement released early Friday evening. “Their attempt to intimidate the other 29 NBA teams by threatening frivolous litigation merely for signing this capable NBA veteran is a clear violation of the anti-collusion and other provisions of our Collective Bargaining Agreement. We will vigorously defend Darius’ rights.”

The Blazers sent an email to rival team executives late Thursday threatening legal action to any franchise that signs Miles for the “purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers’ salary cap and tax positions.”

The email cites Wednesday’s Yahoo! Sports report that if Miles plays in two more games this season, the remaining $18 million on his contract goes back on the Blazers’ payroll.

“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,” Blazers president Larry Miller wrote in the email to representatives of every NBA team. “Such conduct by 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.”

Miller told reporters in Portland on Friday that the team was not trying to block Miles’ return to the NBA, but sending a message to rivals who wanted to intentionally hurt their financial interests.

“We were hearing a lot of rumblings and rumors that there were teams out there planning to sign Darius Miles specifically and maliciously to hurt our organization,” Miller said. “This was our way of responding to that and letting folks know that we were not going to take it sitting down.”

An NBA spokesman said the league had no comment on the threat. But the league did notify teams on Friday morning that Miles had cleared waivers and was eligible to be signed to a standard contract.

“Any such contract,” the league wrote in the memo, “would be approved by the NBA.”

Teams had been under the impression the collective bargaining agreement demanded that Miles play 10 regular-season or postseason games for the $18 million – which is split evenly between this and next season – to return to the Blazers’ payroll. But the league office confirmed to Yahoo! Sports that the six preseason games that Miles played for the Boston Celtics counts toward the 10. Before the Grizzlies waived him on Tuesday night to avoid guaranteeing his contract for the rest of the season, Miles played two regular-season games that pushed him to eight total.

“They’re daring someone to sign him now,” said one Western Conference GM who had seen the email from the Blazers.

If the Grizzlies play Miles two more games, they will punch out one of the summer’s top free-agent destinations. The Blazers are a prime destination for free agents, and the cap space also made them a fierce competitor for sign-and-trade deals. If Miles returns to the salary cap, he also will push Portland into the luxury tax. That means every team under the tax would benefit with about $250,000 of revenue sharing from Portland.

“The point that everybody is missing is that this isn’t about Portland’s salary cap. It’s about whether this guy [Miles] is healthy enough to play or not,” said an Eastern Conference executive. “He obviously is healthy enough to play. It doesn’t matter how good he plays. He can still play, and they said he couldn’t.

“Portland received benefits when [Miles’] injury was ruled career-ending. If he can play, they don’t deserve to have those benefits.”

[ThunderCover]

Financial Ramifications: Portland's salary currently totals ~$70,060,316 (including the buy-out of guard Steve Francis). The luxury tax threshold is $71.15 million - so the Blazers are just under the cut.

Add Miles' $9 million salary to the equation and suddenly the Blazers are at about $79.06 million. That's $7.91 million in tax Portland would suddenly have to pay - and about $263,677 that would go into the pockets of every other team under the tax line.

The Blazers would also lose out on the redistribution of luxury tax which projects to be at about $2.9 million this summer - assuming the Detroit Pistons make another trade to get under (something like Alex Acker for a conditional second-round pick) and the league allows Eric Snow's final year off the Cleveland Cavaliers' books (medical retirement).

In other words, the Blazers would be looking at financial loss of about $10.8 million if Miles plays in two additional games.

Beyond the financial penalty - the Blazers would find themselves limited this summer if they suddenly have to tack on another $9 million to their cap figure.

Assuming the team renounces the rights to forwards Channing Frye and Ike Diogu, their total salary number (not including a 2009 draft pick) would be $39.9 million. For the 2008/9 NBA Season, the cap is set at $58.68 million. While it typically goes up each year - the current economy could mean it stays about the same. For the sake of argument - let's go with a round number at $59 million.

With all the young talent the Blazers are already sitting on - they're also looking at roughly $19 million in cap this summer.

Put Miles' $9 million back on the books and suddenly Portland's spending power is almost cut in half - down to $10 million.

Technically guard Steve Blake and forward Travis Outlaw can be cut before the end of June to prevent their salaries from becoming guaranteed next season. That's not how the Blazers want to open up enough space to offer a free agent a max (or near-max) deal.

[Trueblood]

I agree with the boldface comment at the end of the first post. The rest of the league isn't hurting Portland by doing this. Portland would be benefitting in a way that lots of teams haven't been able to benefit from and the rest of the league is making sure that they're on an even playing field. If the Blazers get out of this contract, it opens up a whole can of worms and everyone is going to be looking at ways to get out from under the contract of injured players who haven't lived up to their contract.

From purely a bball standpoint, this is Paul Allen's fault for giving him that contract in the first place. The 5th year, right of first refusal option was added to the cba specifically for HS players like Miles, where the jury was still out on what their value was even after 4 years in the NBA. Instead of exercising that 5th year, Allen gave him a ridiculous deal that he in no way earned during his first 4 years in the league. Now, Allen is going to have to live with that mistake.

[Trueblood]

Also, the financial ramifications are a lot worse than 10 million. They lose the 9 million that they owe Miles but by being 9 million over the lux tax threshold, you have to pay a dollar for dollar penalty so it balloons to 18 million plus the payout of around 3 million and you're looking at a total of 21 million.

This is exactly why Denver got rid of Camby and subsequently, Chucky Atkins. By getting under the tax, they are SAVING that 20 some odd million.

[Starksfan311]

“The point that everybody is missing is that this isn’t about Portland’s salary cap. It’s about whether this guy [Miles] is healthy enough to play or not,” said an Eastern Conference executive. “He obviously is healthy enough to play. It doesn’t matter how good he plays. He can still play, and they said he couldn’t.

“Portland received benefits when [Miles’] injury was ruled career-ending. If he can play, they don’t deserve to have those benefits.”



The thing is Miles ISN'T healthy enough to play, I saw 1 of those Celtics preseason games and 2 of his Grizzlies games and he is not healthy enough to play. He's not even good enough to play in the D-League. These teams aren't interested in what Miles can do on the court their only interest is to screw Portland.


The Grizzlies are trying to blackmail Portland. These 2 teams have been talking trades for a year now and Portland shoots them down everytime. The Grizzlies are using Darius to force Portland to make a trade in the Grizzlies favor. Memphis wants to dump their garbage contracts(Jaric, Buckner, was Cardinal) on Portland for Lafrentz, then Conley/Warrick for either 2 of Fernandez/*******/Outlaw/Webster. Portland has turned them down everytime, every scenario.

It was the same thing with the Celtics. No one hates Paul Allen more than Danny Ainge. Ainge was pissed about the way his playing career ended in Portland. When Boston signed Darius it wasn't because they thought he could help them on the court, it was because Ainge just wanted to get back at Paul Allen. They probably would have kept Miles on and screwed the Blazers themselves if they had had the roster room. It was simply because Ainge was being vengeful.

And Darius Miles himself has always said that he didn't even enjoy playing basketball. Since he doesn't like playing then this isn't about playing again. Since he gets his money anyway this isn't about money. I seriously doubt it's about vengence with him. He was Paul Allens favorite player, the Blazers always treated him better than they treated other players. Allen and Miles were friends off the court, Miles was overpaid because of this friendship. They even kept him on the team a year longer than they should have. They had 2nd and 3rd opinions on that knee, the doctors kept saying it was bone to bone and he should stop playing. His career was over several years ago. I can't figure out why he is trying to do this to Portland.

[ThunderCover]

Here's some more interesting info from Hoopsworld on the ramifications of this deal....

"Why 2009 and not 2010? Considering most teams are looking to maximize their space for the summer of 2010 (when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Amar'e Stoudemire and a host of other high quality players could be available) - the Blazers need to make their splash a year earlier.

At issue are the contracts of Portland stars - guard Brandon Roy and forward LaMarcus Aldridge. Both stand to be restricted free agents in 2010 - although there's a good chance the Blazers lock the pair down to lucrative extensions.

Big money deals may mean no cap space in 2010 - assuming conservatively that both get deals starting at $10 million a season. Even if they do become restricted free agents - their combined cap hold would be about $26.3 million.

To keep both Roy and Aldridge - and get deep enough under the cap to bring in a third significant piece - the Blazers would have to flat out gut their roster.

Essentially 2010 is out for Portland unless they make radical changes to their roster - assuming Roy and Aldridge are indeed the future of the franchise - which they are.

If so pressed the Blazers may be forced into making a deal before the February deadline with the expiring contract of Raef LaFrentz as a major building block - if their spending power in 2009 is seriously endangered.

Some of the big-name free agents potentially available in 2009 include Lamar Odom, Rasheed Wallace (the irony), Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Shawn Marion, Mike Bibby, Jason Kidd, Allen Iverson, Jamal Crawford, Ron Artest, Hedo Turkoglu and Andre Miller - among others.

Very few teams will have cap space this summer. Competition for free agents between General Managers can be just as feisty as the Los Angeles Lakers/Boston Celtics Christmas match-up.

To be able to almost eliminate a suitor by drastically reducing their spending power - that's got to appeal to any of the other teams thinking space in 2009
Teams like the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Oklahoma City Thunder, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami HEAT and Minnesota Timberwolves may have varying amounts of cap room this summer - but that's dependent on what they do with their own free agents.

Putting the Trail Blazers at a financial disadvantage makes a lot of sense for any one of those teams looking for a leg up. It might burn a bridge or two in Portland - but so be it . . .

Which leads to the question . . . why didn't the Blazers just claim him off waivers and park him on the inactive list for the rest of the season?

They probably should have - even if it meant cutting forward Shavlik Randolph before all contracts became fully guaranteed.

Of course there was risk on that end too - that the league might find that a conflict and rule Miles "unretired" on the spot."

[ThunderCover]

The thing is Miles ISN'T healthy enough to play.

That is all this really comes down to since them being relieved of his contract was because his injury was "career ending"....


The Grizzlies apparantly were impressed with Miles, whom they signed last month, even though he only played in two games for them. But in the last game, against Minnesota last Tuesday, Miles had a couple of blocked shots and played good post defense against the Timberwolves burly forward Al Jefferson. The Grizzlies opted to bring Miles back rather than bring a player up from the Developmental League or sign other free agents that hadn't played for them.


But the attorney allowed that it would be very difficult for Portland to prove that a team signed Miles with the sole intent of harming the Trail Blazers.

Both the Celtics and Grizzlies told me independently -- and before the Blazers' e-mail came to light -- that Miles, while still working to get in shape, didn't have any physical limitations brought on by the microfracture surgery he underwent on his right knee in 2006.

A source said the Celtics waived Miles for a couple of reasons: the strong camp of forward Brian Scalabrine and because it would be cheaper for Boston to keep a rookie like second-round pick Bill Walker as its 12th man than a veteran like Miles, who would make a minimum $1.14 million this season as an eighth-year player.

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/01/09/dose.20090109/index.html

[ThunderCover]

Here's an interesting piece from Sunday's Oregonian...


Golden boy walks into dark
Sunday, January 11, 2009
The Oregonian
T he NBA's golden boy arrived at the Rose Garden on Saturday in a silver Acura MDX. He wore a gray pinstriped suit, had a fresh haircut, and a light purple dress shirt to go with a dark purple tie.

It's not lost on anyone that Trail Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard has a blank check for an owner. And that the three drafts Pritchard handled for Portland he was given the resources to land five lottery picks. And also, the GM has Jeff Ma, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology card-counting genius responsible for "Bringing Down the House," writing computer-algorithms for his scouting database.

So, yeah, basically there's an old-guard NBA faction that would love to see this guy walk into a five-star restaurant and sit down in a chair sometime that splintered and buckled underneath him.

Portland beat Golden State 113-100 on Saturday. Afterward, Pritchard left the Rose Garden arena with his girlfriend, Marlene, a teacher and former Blazers dancer. And so yeah, basically, when the rest of the league saw an opportunity to squash Pritchard's summer 2009 salary-cap flexibility by signing Darius Miles to a 10-day contract, it was going to get done.

Said one Western Conference GM of Pritchard on Saturday: "(Bleep) that guy, he's walking around rubbing everyone's nose in the deals he's made and even with all those lottery players his team is still not in the playoffs.

"There was a line of guys in the league waiting to sign D. Miles if Memphis didn't."

What we have here, see, isn't so golden.

It's dark. And ugly. And maybe, too, a little bit educational. Because all that jealousy, hostility and contempt is going to manifest itself over the next couple of months, maybe years, and at the very least Pritchard better come to understand this if he's going to navigate the territory successfully.

There is a new way of doing things in the NBA. And an old way. Pritchard, Cleveland's Danny Ferry, Oklahoma City's Sam Presti, Houston's Daryl Morey, Toronto's Bryan Colangelo are among the new-way guys.

The new guys are young, and dress well. They live well. They incorporate computer programs in their scouting process. They're outspoken, they're creative, forward-thinking and progressive. Sometimes that stuff plays obnoxious to outsiders. Sometimes it just is. And when you threaten to win big -- the Blazers are eight games over .500 and are a potential player in trade/free-agency -- well, that pretty much makes you the grand pooh-bah of the new-world guys.

The big surprise this week isn't that Memphis, and others, were ready to take on Miles and make life difficult for Portland. But rather, why anyone paying attention would have been shocked to see someone eager to stand in Pritchard's way.

On Saturday, asked about the target on his chest, Pritchard said, "They probably see that we're winning, and it's the whole organization they see in a position to have success."

Um, no.

Maybe there's a little truth there, but if it were an old-world general manager sitting in the middle of what looks like a bright future at One Center Court, you can bet the resistance wouldn't be as enthusiastic. Outside GMs would be crowing about a well-done job, and years of hard work paying off, and a break that management had coming.

Instead, other league executives are asking stuff like, "Did that (bleep) really coin (the phrase) 'Pritch-slapped' by himself?"

(No. He didn't. The term was born in the mind of a Blazers fan after a series of Pritchard personnel moves. But you get the idea.)

[Starksfan311]

Wow thanks for that article Thundercover.

It's messed up how jealous and vengeful the other teams are being to Portland, Allen and Pritchard. They will get their due eventually. Pritchard will find a way to overcome this and they will win some championships anyway.

There is a revolution happening in the NBA front office ranks, there are new ways of doing things that are going to take over. Those old front office dudes can be jealous and try to screw Pritchard all they want, but they better enjoy it, there are young guys with new ways of thinking and new ways of doing things that are going to take their jobs eventually.

You can't burn bridges in this league. Chris Wallace and Danny Ainge will get whats coming to them.

[ThunderCover]

I like reading your posts Starksfan but it seems that you allow your own personal bias to cloud your judgement which prevents you from being objective on certain issues.

Anyway the saga continues...


Before the Portland Trail Blazers resorted to a threatening email to frighten rival NBA teams from signing Darius Miles, team officials late last week made a brazen bid to claim the forward off waivers only to be stopped by the league, multiple front-office sources told Yahoo! Sports.

So determined to salvage the salary cap space that would come with the foiling of Miles’ comeback from a devastating knee injury, Portland president Larry Miller and general manager Kevin Pritchard apparently were willing to stash Miles on the sideline and keep him away from other NBA teams.

In denying the Blazers’ move to control Miles, NBA front-office sources say that league executives in New York denied the waiver claim because they believed the Blazers were merely trying to circumvent league salary cap rules.

Once the NBA rejected Portland’s waiver claim, Miller sent an unprecedented threat of legal action for any team that signed Miles as a free agent. Several league executives were aware of the bid on Miles and reacted angrily over what they considered hypocrisy.

Portland signed Miles to a $48 million contract in 2004, a move that Pritchard had regretted when he took over the franchise. After Miles suffered a micro-fracture injury to his right knee in 2006, missing seasons, doctors representing the Blazers and NBA agreed that the damage was too severe for Miles to return. Still, Miles had insisted that he would try to come back to the NBA if the knee ever healed, and that’s exactly what happened.

[ThunderCover]

From Hoopsworld this morning...


It's A Tough League: Former Magic GM John Gabriel, who now works for the New York Knicks commented on the now "infamous" Portland Trail Blazer memo regarding Darius Miles, saying other teams rarely had sympathy for your team's troubles, joking in saying "no one shed a tear for us in Orlando when we didn't get the injury exceptions on Grant Hill." The general consensus among executives is that Portland should have the monies owed Darius Miles placed back on their cap, not out of spite, but because it is now clear that Miles can indeed play again, something the Blazers professed was not the case. In the Magic's case, they carried Grant Hill for almost five years before getting any meaningful basketball out of him. The Memphis Grizzlies play host to the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight in Memphis, and all eyes will be on Miles who will be in uniform and ready to play. The question becomes does Memphis put him in the game, or let him sit?

[KDisNotNice]

Miles scored 13 points tonight in 13 minutes for Memphis. Portland looks like a piece of crap now. One more game, and Portland is out 18 million (and possibly a good reserve). I only wish the 10th game would have been against Portland. ;)

[StormFan93]

Miles scored 13 points tonight in 13 minutes for Memphis. Portland looks like a piece of crap now. One more game, and Portland is out 18 million (and possibly a good reserve). I only wish the 10th game would have been against Portland. ;)

???

Yep, the 23-14 Blazers are just screwed. :rolleyes:

But really, I don't see how this is going to greatly affect them. They're young, they're extremely talented, Oden leads the team in double doubles, and they have a 2nd servicable center in Pryzbilla (who could start in most places), they have the "Spanish Armada" in Rodriguez and Fernandez, ******* proved his worth in the games Brandon Roy was out, and, of course, they have Brandon Roy.

[ThunderCover]

???

Yep, the 23-14 Blazers are just screwed. :rolleyes:

But really, I don't see how this is going to greatly affect them. They're young, they're extremely talented, Oden leads the team in double doubles, and they have a 2nd servicable center in Pryzbilla (who could start in most places), they have the "Spanish Armada" in Rodriguez and Fernandez, ******* proved his worth in the games Brandon Roy was out, and, of course, they have Brandon Roy.

Did you follow the rest of the story? You seem to have missed the point.

Portland president Larry Miller and general manager Kevin Pritchard attempted to blackball Darius Miles by first trying to claim him off waivers for the purpose of burying him on the bench and when that was blocked by the NBA front office, they tried to intimidate other teams from signing him by threatening legal action in the now infamous email.

Portland received salary relieve based on Miles having a "career ending" injury. Clearly based on his performance last night, the injury wasn't "career ending"...their motives for trying to undermine Miles attempt to come back from his injury were....


Financial Ramifications: Portland's salary currently totals ~$70,060,316 (including the buy-out of guard Steve Francis). The luxury tax threshold is $71.15 million - so the Blazers are just under the cut.

Add Miles' $9 million salary to the equation and suddenly the Blazers are at about $79.06 million. That's $7.91 million in tax Portland would suddenly have to pay - and about $263,677 that would go into the pockets of every other team under the tax line.

The Blazers would also lose out on the redistribution of luxury tax which projects to be at about $2.9 million this summer - assuming the Detroit Pistons make another trade to get under (something like Alex Acker for a conditional second-round pick) and the league allows Eric Snow's final year off the Cleveland Cavaliers' books (medical retirement).

In other words, the Blazers would be looking at financial loss of about $10.8 million if Miles plays in two additional games.

Beyond the financial penalty - the Blazers would find themselves limited this summer if they suddenly have to tack on another $9 million to their cap figure.

To say that Miller, Pritchard and Portland look like a piece of crap is putting it mildly...

[KDisNotNice]

Yes, I meant looked like a piece of crap in the sense they tried to sign Miles again just to stash him on the inactive list and not have to pay that 18 million. He obviously can play still in the NBA and it was wrong how Portland handled the situation. The NBA should have fined them for their actions.

Portland does still have a very good team though.

[StormFan93]

Did you follow the rest of the story? You seem to have missed the point.

Portland president Larry Miller and general manager Kevin Pritchard attempted to blackball Darius Miles by first trying to claim him off waivers for the purpose of burying him on the bench and when that was blocked by the NBA front office, they tried to intimidate other teams from signing him by threatening legal action in the now infamous email.

Portland received salary relieve based on Miles having a "career ending" injury. Clearly based on his performance last night, the injury wasn't "career ending"...their motives for trying to undermine Miles attempt to come back from his injury were....



To say that Miller, Pritchard and Portland look like a piece of crap is putting it mildly...

I live 3 hours away from Portland. I get all their games on TV and Radio. I understand the situation. I thought T8S was saying their salary cap situation looked like a piece of crap, and I thought it doesn't make much of a difference because of the team they've put together to this point.

[ThunderCover]

...and the conclusion of this story is...


Grizzlies forward Darius Miles, who signed a 10-day contract Saturday, made his 10th appearance of the season Friday, placing the remaining $18 million of his salary back on Portland’s payroll. The Trail Blazers sent out an e-mail earlier this month warning of possible legal action against any team signing the free agent, but the Grizzlies signed Miles.

He finished with 10 points and seven rebounds in 14 minutes.

Not bad for a guy with a "career ending injury."

[ThunderCover]

Excerpts from a story from Yahoo Sports entitled..."Miles separated Blazers GM from greatness"...


The bully-boy bluff ends now because the Portland Trail Blazers always were without the guts to file a lawsuit over Darius Miles. Their threatening email had been a desperate final act of a franchise awash in arrogance. Blazers officials hoped the threat of Paul Allen’s riches could scare the NBA. Mostly, it made everyone laugh.

For whatever hollow intimidation they used to try to stop the signing of Miles, Blazers officials understood this: They were the last people who would’ve wanted to go under oath about the behind-the-scenes machinations of Miles’ injury retirement. Only the Blazers would’ve been on trial. Only they would’ve had to answer the most uncomfortable of questions.

From leaked drug tests and public proclamations of private medical records to trashing Miles to rival executives and daring to claim him off waivers to stash him away on the inactive list, Portland’s front office acted in bad form and bad faith. Yes, the Jail Blazers lived again.


Management wanted out of his $48 million contract in Portland and found a way. All along, Miles told the Blazers he would try to play again. He honored his word.

And the better he has looked, the worse it has reflected on Portland GM Kevin Pritchard. As much as anyone, this mess has exposed him. He wanted to be the star in the good times in Portland, wanted all the bouquets and bows for his work on the job. He started to believe his own clippings, his own mythology, and he thought he could get away with anything.

Portland owner Paul Allen gave Pritchard the biggest stack of chips to bring to the table, and Pritchard flaunted them to everyone. He stockpiled draft choices like Reagan did nuclear warheads, buying up millions of dollars worth of picks from cash-strapped teams over the past several seasons. He never has been afraid to rub that advantage into the faces of his peers. The Blazers still haven’t been to the playoffs under him, but any opposing GM on the wrong side of a deal with Portland is considered to have been Pritch-slapped.


It’s strange, but every transaction in Portland has been treated like a validation of Pritchard’s genius. Now, his apologists are blaming Paul Allen and president Larry Miller for the Miles mess, only it doesn’t work like that. Pritchard is the face of the franchise because he made it that way.

Pritchard has mismanaged the Miles situation from the beginning. Once the league doctor agreed that Miles’ knee injury was a career-ender, Pritchard’s dubious intentions came tumbling out of him.

“Two doctors said Darius had the worst microfracture injury they had ever seen,” he publicly said. “They would never have him play basketball, and the odds of having knee replacement surgery [are] high. I hear that, and as a general manager, I didn’t want it on my conscience – that I had a kid have to go through a knee replacement surgery.

“That’s a pretty major surgery. They saw [two bones] and replace [the knee]. It’s a bad deal.”

His conscience, huh? Those were words directed at the rest of the league, trying to tell every other team that Miles was too far gone for them to consider bringing back. He must have believed people were stupid. All around the NBA, it made everyone think: Pritchard sounds scared that Miles isn’t done at all. Why else would he be trying so hard to convince everyone otherwise?

Bad enough that Pritchard spoke out of turn on a player’s medical condition and possibly violated privacy laws, but it was clear that a campaign to frighten away potential teams was under way. From there, it went underground. If the Blazers couldn’t scare people on Miles’ knee, it wasn’t long, league executives say, until Portland turned to his character.



Portland loses cap space now, and it loses some respect. All that arrogance, all those threats and a 27-year-old that Kevin Pritchard and his posse had dismissed as character-free, as the last holdout of the Jail Blazers, taught them a lesson.

Yes, the Jail Blazers made a comeback this season.

Only this time, they wore suits.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AmY5fJo5gXn5qV4tWy7bEtm8vLYF?slug=aw-milespritchard011709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns