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Thank You Danny, For Calling Portland's Bluff

The whole Darius Miles saga of the past several months would fit right into the Tom Clancy novel template ... except that the Miles situation has a good plot and compelling characters. It's a Russian spy thriller. To save cap space, Portland boss Kevin Pritchard allegedly spread word (against league rules) that Miles had failed a drug test (without mentioning it was for diet pills, not weed or steroids) and publicly told anyone who'd listen Miles' knee looked more sickening than the spawn of Phelps and Beard.

We owe Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics a debt of gratitude, then, for cutting through Pritchard's bullpucky and signing Miles to a nominal contract on Friday. Pritchard, in just a few years at Portland's helm, has made plenty of fair, borderline revolutionary moves. (Like, he actually calls other GMs! It's a big advancement in our beloved NBA.) But his handling of L'Affair D-Miles looks from the common vantage point to be just plain nasty.

Blazers announcer Mike Barrett passionately defends his boss from wrongdoing in a great interview with Blazers Edge, but Ainge ain't buying it. Roster spots are the new cap space, and there's a measure of risk involved in signing Miles. Basically, Ainge is telling Pritchard he doesn't believe a word he says about Darius's knee. That's new territory for Pritchard, and for the NBA under Pritchard's reign.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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That had to be the dumbest, stupidist article had ever read.  Oh well, no surprise coming from The Sporting News.  STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!  Wake up, Darius Miles is the biggest thug of them all right now.  Kobe isn’t too far behind him.

by Erica on Aug 23, 2008 10:32 PM EDT reply actions  

Are you joking?

Pritchard is spot-on.  Darius Miles is a washed-up thug loser who will no doubt waste the Celtics time and money as well and continue to be a cancer wherever he ends up.

Cap space or not Portland’s glad to be rid of him, so your article really doesn’t change our opinion of Pritchard or the way he handled the situation.  Miles deserves every bit of criticism his lazy ass gets.

by DuckedOut on Aug 23, 2008 11:45 PM EDT reply actions  

Worthless article. There is no doubt Portland would love it if Miles never played again. But to suggest that other teams don’t have the smarts to look into Miles failed drug test and look at his knee for themselves is a waste of space on a web page. I want my 30 seconds it took me to read this article back.

by drew6013 on Aug 24, 2008 12:26 AM EDT reply actions  

Ziller!  Usually love the stuff you write, but I’m just not sure on this one…

Is it some whacky hatred of the Blazers?  And who sticks up for Danny Ainge?  Wait, scratch that, who the hell sticks up for Darius Miles?  This guy had everything anyone could dream of, and then he got fat, lazy, loved strippers and weed too much, and then didnt care enough to get himself into shape after a knee surgery.

Please don’t write about Danny Ainge like he is some genius every again, and please don’t act like you would want Darius Miles babysitting your children.  If the NBA wants its image cleaned up, then Kevin Pritchard was doing it a favor by getting rid of this guy.

by kellex on Aug 24, 2008 11:48 AM EDT reply actions  

None of this has anything to do with Miles’ attitude. I’m talking about his knee. Pritchard and the Blazers have been talking about it like it’s some vomit-inducing mess of chicken grissle (sp?). Boston looked at it, watching Miles play, and have basically said, "Portland oversold it" by signing Miles to a deal, which is actually a risk in today’s era of overburdened rosters.

Ainge isn’t a genius; I thanked him for testing Pritchard on this. He has a roster able to squeeze Darius in with minimal disruption. If no one challenged Pritchard on this, a player who might be able to help someone would have sat out the season, and Portland would have benefitted from selling his knee as grotesque.

by Tom Ziller on Aug 24, 2008 12:53 PM EDT reply actions  

You thugs and boob-lovers are missing the point: Pritchard, who is otherwise rad, tried to do something shady in order to help his cap. Not cool. Whether or not you think Darius Miles deserves to rot in hell doesn’t make any difference; in fact, he was getting the Blazers’ money no matter what.

by bethlehemshoals.tsn on Aug 24, 2008 1:27 PM EDT reply actions  

I think the comments ought to be in descending order, as the boobs commenting at the alleged top of this line are obvious Portland apologists. No doubt, the C’s will finally get one back from losing Brandon Roy in the ’06 draft to get Sebastian "shoo, shoot ’em up" Telfair.

by joevpoet on Aug 24, 2008 11:34 PM EDT reply actions  

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