Darius Miles Has Privacy?

by Ben Golliver on Jul 26, 2008 11:04 AM PDT

Dwight Jaynes wrote an excellent piece about the Darius Miles Health Affair this week.

knickfan beat me to the punch with his fanpost about it. A must read.

A few random thoughts...

Don't take anything from the "no response" from Miles' agent, Mr. Wechsler. My understanding from a number of writers that have tried to contact him is that he basically refuses to talk about any issue.

Indeed, I naively tried to reach out for "Darius's side of the story" recently and came across Mr. Wechsler's agency website. It hasn't changed in months. I found the lack of a website interesting given that he is seen as a pretty heavy-hitter, with clients such as Larry Hughes, Alonzo Mourning, Quentin Richardson and, of course, Darius. Most companies worth millions of dollars invest at least something into a web presence.

Aside: from his list of clients, it appears he's carved out quite a lucrative niche convincing teams to overpay for underperformers (with the exception of Zo).

In any case, I think it's telling that the big recent Miles news came from SI's Ian Thomsen, and read kind of like Thomsen randomly bumped into Darius in a casino in Vegas and caught him at a good (or better-than-usual) moment.

The "no comment" from the Blazers is frustrating, but at this point I don't think they have much choice legally. The logical conclusion from that is: this story is far from over.

A final thought... Mr. Miles: talking now only does you good. It keeps your name in the papers and gets you that much closer to another contract. As long as you keep your sentiments positive, you've got nothing to lose because you're on the outside looking in right now. Humanizing your struggle by speaking would be a great move. Plus, I imagine you've got a lot more to say.

And I know I'd like to hear it.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

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Regarding your final thought-

You’re not supposed to give advice to Miles! Keep him quiet so people forget about it!

by CaptainSexyJacob on Jul 26, 2008 11:14 AM PDT reply actions

haha

keep in mind i still hold my title as the vice president of the darius miles fan club.

the rest of the board resigned long ago.

so it’s a lonely position. but one i cherish.

"You'd rather say 'whoa' than 'giddyup.'" ~ Dean Demopoulos

by Ben Golliver on Jul 26, 2008 11:24 AM PDT up reply actions

Okay, so

SI’s Ian Thomsen reports that Darius’ comeback is said to be a “no-brainer,” but then he goes on to talk a little bit about the salary cap situation with the Blazers. He writes:

“the Blazers could apply for a reinstatement of the career-ending exception and retrieve the $9 million in cap space.”

For those without exceptional reading skills….. could you clear this up? Does this mean the team would seek doctors’ opinions again to deem his injury career ending? How many times can this process be done?

by CaptainSexyJacob on Jul 26, 2008 11:34 AM PDT up reply actions

You like 6'9" athletic forwards, don't you?

Are you in the Annthefan #25 fan club?

by royroty on Jul 26, 2008 11:56 AM PDT up reply actions

Rah Rah Rah!! Sis boombah!!

"Besides, AnntheFan will be here any minute to #25 you." T Darkstar

by annthefan on Jul 26, 2008 5:54 PM PDT up reply actions

I think...

the blood vessels in Canzano’s eyes just burst with rage.

by alacritybagel on Jul 26, 2008 2:32 PM PDT reply actions

I think it helps to get a couple things straight

1. Regarding the “leak” of the drug suspension.

This is NOT something the Blazers leaked to keep Darius from getting a chance with another team. Every other team had this knowledge from the league. So forget that. Someone (not necessarily with the Blazers) leaked it because they don’t like Darius OR someone just slipped up and gave something away. But it has nothing to do with hindering his chance to make another team, because every other team already knew. You can just forget that line of argumentation.

2. Regarding leaks about his medical condition.

The guy is medically retired with a career-ending injury confirmed by an independent doctor, and an insurance company is paying his salary. If anyone has incentive to make sure, it is the insurance company, and guess what? They are paying his salary.

This is all public knowledge. Talking about the injury is supposed to be hindering his chance to make another team? Hello? If KP or anyone else with the Blazers said not a word, what would be the big issue teams would consider if they were thinking about giving Darius a guaranteed contract? Um. Yeah. One word. KNEE!!!!

Will any team be influenced one way or another by a non-doctor like KP talking about his knee when they already know it’s been ruled career-ending? No way. If they want to take a risk, they’ll have their own doctor look at it, and they’ll be a lot more interested in what he says than what some GM in Portland says.

Did KP break the law? I don’t know. But neither of these alleged misdeeds by Portland “leaking” will have the least impact on whether Darius makes another team. Other teams will get their own information and make their own evaluation, no matter what Portland says. That information will include the email from the league notifying them of Darius’ suspension. It will also include the fact that he has this knee issue that they’ll want to evaluate.

This is silly. If there was a legal violation, it was inadvertent. There is no “agenda” to keep Darius from getting a chance with another team. The last thing other teams want to do is take our word for it about Darius, whether good or bad. They aren’t on our side. If they want to try him out, they’ll make their own evaluation.

People around here give KP too much credence. He’s brilliant. But he doesn’t use mind-control to make people drop in the draft. He doesn’t make people make trades that they don’t want to make, or think are bad for them. And he can’t and won’t keep people from giving Darius a try-out if they think he might be able to help them, and it would be silly to think he is saying things with that in view. He’s smart enough to know that he can’t do that even if he wanted to.

Other people don't have as much practice at being wrong as I do -- HT, timbo

by jscot on Jul 26, 2008 3:10 PM PDT reply actions 5 recs

Eureka!!!

I had all that floating around in my noggin and couldn’t really seem to get it down (see my rather lame attemp in Knickfan’s thread). This is exactly what I was thinking. A conspiracy doesn’t make any sense ….since everyone already knew about the facts. How could KP be influencing anyone when he was just repeating what was already common knowledge. Well done Jscot. Rec’d

Homer: "Oh no!! A Bear is eating my father!." (On seeing Selma kissing Grampa)

by 92wastheyear on Jul 26, 2008 3:59 PM PDT up reply actions

Great analysis, jscot

Rec’d. One other point that I haven’t seen mentioned: Kevin Pritchard is responsible for the amazing and rapid turnaround in the culture of the Portland Trail Blazers. He could not have done that if he had not also been a man of high integrity, and he has never said or done anything that could not pass the ethical smell test. It’s troubling that folks would even speculate about him throwing Darius under the bus to save Paul Allen a few million dollars. It would discredit everything he has stood for and re-cast the team in the Jail Blazer spotlight again.

Fans aren’t stupid. When Steve Patterson came out with his 25-point pledge and then didn’t drop the hammer on Darius for his verbal diarrhea toward Maurice Cheeks, we weren’t fooled for a minute by Steve’s spin on the subject. It was obvious that things hadn’t changed in Blazerville, and fans and sponsors continued to drift away from the team. It wasn’t until Kevin took over that real change began. Folks willing to accuse him of improper behavior without a full airing of the facts look like ambulance chasers who drum up new business by running down little old ladies and dialing 911.

Asked his specialty in the kitchen, Oden paused and said, "Hamburger Helper and tuna fish."

by MiledAnimal on Jul 26, 2008 7:36 PM PDT up reply actions

Re: KP's integrity

I’m not persuaded re: your point that he couldn’t have turned the team around if he were not a man of high integrity. Bad guys win sometimes. And we don’t really know enough to know. For all we know, he was blackmailing Ainge and Isiah and half of the other GMs.

But I strongly suspect that you are correct. The way he has turned the team around fits with him being a man of integrity, and a man to whom it matters if those around him are people of integrity.

The fact is, this team had plenty of opportunities to publicly slam Darius in a variety of ways, and they didn’t do it.

I love Timbo, we have lots of fun here, but Timbo was saying there was a conspiracy because they weren’t talking about Darius and his progress in returning from injury. Now, we’re being told there was a conspiracy because they talked too much.

I think there’s a conspiracy to resurrect Darius’ career so he can take more money from some team before his knee blows up for good, or to get a few more bucks for Darius from the Paul Allen gravy train, or both. And I think Dwight Jaynes is a dupe.

And I’ve not been one to bash Darius a lot. But that is exactly what is going on.

Other people don't have as much practice at being wrong as I do -- HT, timbo

by jscot on Jul 26, 2008 10:56 PM PDT up reply actions

I'll disagree on one point.

Bad guys seem to win for a while sometimes, but at some point they lose more then they may have gained. The truth is very persistent and history seems to show that a conspiracy of any kind can’t be hidden forever.

I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.

by JAB21 on Jul 27, 2008 1:13 PM PDT up reply actions