On Thursday we judged whether or not the potential Darius Miles un-retirement would really hurt the Blazers. For anyone still arguing it doesn't really matter ... well, they might want to explain that to the Blazers front office.Ian Thomsen of Sports Illustrated has news of a peculiar (read: %@#$ing crazy) threat Portland president Larry Miller sent around to NBA executives this week. Here's the short letter, according to Thomsen:
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.The Blazers have already gone a few steps too far on the Miles situation, badmouthing him around the league and leaking details of his 10-game suspension to keep prospective teams from even giving him a chance. Local fans, however, remain sympathetic to the Blazers cause in this matter. But this is a mile past the line, right?
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.
The key phrase in there would be "for the purpose of adversely impacting" the team's cap space -- Portland is making threats against malfeasance for malfeasance's sake. But you don't tell teams which free agents they can and for what reasons. Portland is in no position to be making demands of the NBA on this.
In the end, it comes down to this: the Blazers signed Miles to a long and lucrative contract. Portland's new regime disliked the contract. Miles got injured, and Portland convinced Miles to take a medical retirement, even though Miles felt he could still play. Miles can still play. And now the Blazers are trying to chill Miles' attempted comeback by threatening to sue any team that signs him.
THIS IS RIDICULOUS. Before, I would have only suggested a team sign Miles if they thought he could help. Now, screw that. Someone needs to ensure Portland never pulls something like this again.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-09-2009 @ 9:30AM
Martin said...
Darius Miles may want to consult legal counsel concerning the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the Blazers. The courts (and juries) generally do not like companies that try to prevent one from gainful employment, especially when the companies use specious threats of litigation to do so.
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1-09-2009 @ 5:12PM
BLC said...
I wish I owned a team just so I could sign Darius, simply to piss off the GM of the Trail Blazers. What an arrogant SOB. Incidentally, the word is properly spelled "tortious", as in tortious interference with prospective economic advantage, which is the claim under which Darius should sue the Trail Blazers and the GM personally.
1-09-2009 @ 9:53AM
Pete said...
I'm actually disgusted by this. I looks like simple bullying and I truly hope a team steps up and challenges this bs.
But I've got a question: Does Miles need to play in those 10 games this season? What if he plays two more preseason games next season? Does that still affect Portland?
Even if Portland could successfully argue that there's no reason to sign him at this point in the season other than to screw them, it seems impossible to argue that a team shouldn't put him on their training camp/ preseason roster next year to take a look at him.
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1-09-2009 @ 9:57AM
Adam said...
It cracks me up when anybody tries to use law in their desperation to fix a dire situation. You can tell just by reading their statement that the Blazer's have no legs to stand on, and their threats to other NBA teams are empty.
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1-09-2009 @ 10:04AM
Vinay said...
It seems like you're ignoring the very real possibility that someone signs Miles just to screw over Portland. That is, get the 10 games, and then leave him out to dry (again).
I think Portland's threat is clearly meant to create a disincentive against teams thinking of ways to reduce Portland's cap space going into this summer. It seems to me that the charge of malfeasance doesn't hold when someone just signs a player for the remainder of the season, but definitely would if they sign the player just to get the 10 games to screw Portland, and drop the player.
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1-09-2009 @ 11:34AM
PC said...
Where is Isaiah Thomas when we need him?
Really, where? haha...
Somebody please sign Miles!!!!
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1-09-2009 @ 11:51AM
Eric L said...
I agree with Vinay. If a playoff team signs Miles to solidify their rotation thats different than teams in the league essentially colluding to make sure and push a 26 year old Miles into a series of 10 day contracts until he plays two games. Wouldn't the Thunder presumably sign a young guy with upside during the rest of the season instead of Miles? This letter sounds insane but i don't think the Blazers would send it out unless they knew did have some legs to stand on.
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1-09-2009 @ 12:29PM
Martin said...
The Lakers should sign him. After all, Farmar, Walton and Odom are out with injuries and it would certainly make sense to get someone with Miles' athleticism. The fact that signing him would reduce Portland's cap space is merely an added bonus.
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1-09-2009 @ 1:00PM
Ted Doyle said...
This one stinks to high heaven. The Blazers signed him to a bad contract, now they don't want him, and they want to bully their way out of the consequences of their decision. Shame on them.
The Blazers are lucky that they don't have to take a hit because Miles made a roster. The whole idea is that he needed to prove his knee was OK to play. He did that.
As someone said here, the only credible legal threat is Miles suit against the Blazers. Even though he is already getting paid whether he is on a roster or not, sitting the rest of the year out arguably damages him.
The concept of joint venture fiduciary obligations has absolutely no application in this situation. The other so called "fiduciaries" are heavily conflicted from hello when it comes to player movement. They can't be held to unspecified standards.
Additionally, player contracts are seriously arms length and subject to collective bargaining. There just are no implied obligations outside of the NBA partnership agreement when it comes to dealing with players. You can't end run the union by having unwritten rules, in principle. All is fair. If the players didn't want to be exposed to this kind of competition, then they shouldn't have signed the contract.
In my legal judgment, someone could come right out and say "I'm doing it to make the Blazers taxpayers," and they would be just fine.
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1-10-2009 @ 1:08AM
memohamad said...
This is ridiculous on the Blazers part. I didn't even care if someone signed Miles to that extra 2 games before, but now I want ANY team to sign him just to shove it into Paul Allen's face. You can't threaten teams like this and you can't prevent an employee from getting a job.
Unfortunly though, I can definitly see this 'threat' scaring away teams simply because they don't want to get on the Blazer's bad side (bad for business). Hopefully someone does sign him though.
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1-09-2009 @ 3:43PM
Paul Ellington said...
Let the brotha play... You only live once...
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1-09-2009 @ 4:06PM
Geordi said...
It's basketball: who cares?
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1-09-2009 @ 4:32PM
kj said...
Geordi, comments like yours have become annoying to me. If You don't care about basketball or any other sport for that matter then don't get on the board. People making comments like this don't need to take up space. Professional sports have become big time business over the past few decades. Not only for teams but for cities as well. So you can say who cares, but the fact of the matter professional and college sports are important to cities, bringing in people and revenue. So sports does matter beyond sports fans
1-09-2009 @ 4:16PM
Tommy said...
This is a legitimate issue for the union to support Miles, as opposed to filing protests against teams when some thug beats his wife and gets suspended
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1-09-2009 @ 4:22PM
Ralph Novak said...
Looks as if clueless little Tom is sucking up to the players' union
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1-09-2009 @ 4:25PM
Bob said...
The NBA = WWF They are interchangeable, NO??
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1-09-2009 @ 4:50PM
Cassie said...
As an attorney, I wonder who is the legal dimwit that drew this letter up and advised the Blazers to send it? It is a case of manufacturing legal issues out of whole cloth without a bit of law to support them, just hoping that the threat of litigation and the expenses and publicity will cause them to cave in. Disgusting.
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1-09-2009 @ 4:56PM
kentdenero said...
If I'm Miles and no one picks me up by the end of the season I sue the NBA for collusion in front of jury and talk about how for months I worked to get back to my dream.
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1-09-2009 @ 4:59PM
Who Cares said...
Call AL Sharpton
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1-09-2009 @ 4:59PM
cassie said...
Oooops!! Just re-read the letter. I believe the word should be "tortiously", not "tortuously" Actually, on a second reading, I see that the letter does not actually say anything--just a phony threat. Miles should sue them for "tortiously" interfering with his rights.
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