I get what the Blazers are trying to do with the letter to each team, basically saying that signing Miles and then playing him for two games just to stick it to the Blazers violates the spirit of the league as a joint venture. But it doesn't make the Blazers look good. If Miles can play at an NBA level then he should be able to play. The bottom line is, Miles should not have been determined to have career ending injuries in the first place. I think that the Blazers are trying to bully the rest of the league into avoiding Miles because of the controversy, and I don't think it will work. Probably some team will sign Miles for the rest of the season.
But it doesn't make the Blazers look good. If Miles can play at an NBA level then he should be able to play. The bottom line is, Miles should not have been determined to have career ending injuries in the first place. I think that the Blazers are trying to bully the rest of the league into avoiding Miles because of the controversy
What's wrong w/ their in-house medical staff? Somebody done fucked up the money over there.
I get what the Blazers are trying to do with the letter to each team, basically saying that signing Miles and then playing him for two games just to stick it to the Blazers violates the spirit of the league as a joint venture. But it doesn't make the Blazers look good. If Miles can play at an NBA level then he should be able to play. The bottom line is, Miles should not have been determined to have career ending injuries in the first place. I think that the Blazers are trying to bully the rest of the league into avoiding Miles because of the controversy, and I don't think it will work. Probably some team will sign Miles for the rest of the season.
Making their point with that letter is the goal, not necessarily winning people over.
It sounds more like "IF you sign and play him, that THIS is what will follow", not necessarily "Don't sign him." (although signing Miles, paying him and not playing him for the sake of bringing down the wrath of Paul Allen seems a bit stupid).
Regardless, teams like the Grizzlies sighing him to a 10 day contract and playing him for the last 2 minutes of the game seems real suspect to me. What do they have to gain from a dick-move like that?
That's got to go down as one of the worst draft classes in a while.
wow. The first ten picks are flooded with scrubs. Although there are some good role players...Q Rich, Eddie House, Hedo Turkoglu, D Mase. Yea, that is quite a shitty draft.
It sounds more like "IF you sign and play him, that THIS is what will follow", not necessarily "Don't sign him." (although signing Miles, paying him and not playing him for the sake of bringing down the wrath of Paul Allen seems a bit stupid).
The text of the letter says "IF you sign and play him, that THIS is what will follow" because the letter is intended as a threat, not a warning. If the Blazers pursued legal action they would be on pretty shaky ground, but with Paul Allen's resources they could wage a costly and prolonged battle. In my opinion, they are hoping that fear of such a fracas will make teams think twice about signing Miles.
Regardless, teams like the Grizzlies sighing him to a 10 day contract and playing him for the last 2 minutes of the game seems real suspect to me. What do they have to gain from a dick-move like that?
Putting the Blazers 8 million dollars over the cap could benefit other teams in several ways. When the league redistributes money to from teams over the cap to teams under the cap, any team under the cap would receive about 250,000 more with Miles' contract counting against Portland. Also, Portland is positioned to be a big player in the free agent market this coming summer, but adding Miles' contract would cut their free salary cap room in half. If another team was hoping to make some moves this summer, why not knock out a competitor by making Miles your fifteenth man?
It sounds more like "IF you sign and play him, that THIS is what will follow", not necessarily "Don't sign him." (although signing Miles, paying him and not playing him for the sake of bringing down the wrath of Paul Allen seems a bit stupid).
The text of the letter says "IF you sign and play him, that THIS is what will follow" because the letter is intended as a threat, not a warning. If the Blazers pursued legal action they would be on pretty shaky ground, but with Paul Allen's resources they could wage a costly and prolonged battle. In my opinion, they are hoping that fear of such a fracas will make teams think twice about signing Miles.
No, what the letter essentially says is that "If you sign him and DON'T play him, then this may follow".
The actual phrasing is:
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.
If a team signs him and assigns him meaningful minutes, then it has a strong defense to any lawsuit, i.e., "We signed him for the purpose of playing him, not for the purpose of 'adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions'". If they sign him and put him on ice, after letting him see the floor for fractions of two more games, then I don't think a lawsuit against them is on such shakey ground (although I've never looked at any of the relevant documents, besides the text of the e-mail).
If a team signs him and assigns him meaningful minutes, then it has a strong defense to any lawsuit, i.e., "We signed him for the purpose of playing him, not for the purpose of 'adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions'". If they sign him and put him on ice, after letting him see the floor for fractions of two more games, then I don't think a lawsuit against them is on such shakey ground (although I've never looked at any of the relevant documents, besides the text of the e-mail).
Teams often sign players who don't get significant minutes. They are insurance against injury to the players ahead of them on the roster. Sometimes they are just good practice players to compete against the regular rotation players, sometimes they are good "chemistry" guys. The Blazers would have to prove that Miles was not signed for any of these perfectly legitimate reasons. And they would surely not have the backing of the NBA, who would not want to publicly back such an "anti-player" position. Remember, Miles is getting payed no matter if it counts against the Blazers cap or not, he legitimately just wants to play.
If a team signs him and assigns him meaningful minutes, then it has a strong defense to any lawsuit, i.e., "We signed him for the purpose of playing him, not for the purpose of 'adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions'". If they sign him and put him on ice, after letting him see the floor for fractions of two more games, then I don't think a lawsuit against them is on such shakey ground (although I've never looked at any of the relevant documents, besides the text of the e-mail).
Teams often sign players who don't get significant minutes. They are insurance against injury to the players ahead of them on the roster. Sometimes they are just good practice players to compete against the regular rotation players, sometimes they are good "chemistry" guys. The Blazers would have to prove that Miles was not signed for any of these perfectly legitimate reasons. And they would surely not have the backing of the NBA, who would not want to publicly back such an "anti-player" position. Remember, Miles is getting payed no matter if it counts against the Blazers cap or not, he legitimately just wants to play.
Look, having been put on notice, I don't think any team is going to be foolish enough to do what the e-mail refers to, i.e., sign him, put him on the floor for 30 seconds in two games, and then park him. They would obviously finesse it in a way that would allow them to rely upon all of the other explanations for the signing that you referred to. I'm mostly just clarifying what the e-mail says. Even assuming an extreme case where they don't do any of those things, I don't think such a suit is likely to succeed, but it might also survive a motion to dismiss, and press coverage, having your management subjected to depositions, etc. are not appealing prospects.
I don't even know if one franchise could commence an action against another without first going through some sort of intra-joint venture arbitration.
If a team signs him and assigns him meaningful minutes, then it has a strong defense to any lawsuit, i.e., "We signed him for the purpose of playing him, not for the purpose of 'adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions'". If they sign him and put him on ice, after letting him see the floor for fractions of two more games, then I don't think a lawsuit against them is on such shakey ground (although I've never looked at any of the relevant documents, besides the text of the e-mail).
Teams often sign players who don't get significant minutes. They are insurance against injury to the players ahead of them on the roster. Sometimes they are just good practice players to compete against the regular rotation players, sometimes they are good "chemistry" guys. The Blazers would have to prove that Miles was not signed for any of these perfectly legitimate reasons. And they would surely not have the backing of the NBA, who would not want to publicly back such an "anti-player" position. Remember, Miles is getting payed no matter if it counts against the Blazers cap or not, he legitimately just wants to play.
Look, having been put on notice, I don't think any team is going to be foolish enough to do what the e-mail refers to, i.e., sign him, put him on the floor for 30 seconds in two games, and then park him. They would obviously finesse it in a way that would allow them to rely upon all of the other explanations for the signing that you referred to. I'm mostly just clarifying what the e-mail says. Even assuming an extreme case where they don't do any of those things, I don't think such a suit is likely to succeed, but it might also survive a motion to dismiss, and press coverage, having your management subjected to depositions, etc. are not appealing prospects.
I don't even know if one franchise could commence an action against another without first going through some sort of intra-joint venture arbitration.
I agree with you, and that is why I am suggesting that the e-mail is mostly bluster. The Blazers are saying that they are willing to make things a pain in the ass for whatever team might sign Miles. Or perhaps the intent of the e-mail is to "pre-tarnish" the reputation of any GM that signs Miles. If the Blazers suggest that any team that signs Miles is just doing so to adversely affect the Blazers, then the signing may result in negative publicity for that team.
For anyone that might fault Portland, they are just making smart business decisions. They thought they were given a gift in Miles' medical retirement, and now that the gift may be taken away they are taking whatever steps they can to keep it.
Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, has just sent this message to all of the other league owners (and apparently the press):
"With all due respect???although the Cleveland Cavaliers have no interest in signing Darius Miles and will not be signing Darius Miles. I find your email quite peculiar from two standpoints:
1. It's dead wrong. I believe that all 30 NBA teams were and are fully aware of the terms and provisions of the collective bargaining agreement as to which all teams and the NBA are a party to, including the Portland Trailblazers.
2. Are legal threats through a mass email the best way to circumvent the known potential consequences that could result from the Trailblazers decisions and actions they took with respect to Darius Miles?
I fully understand the frustration you and your team's ownership must be feeling in regards to this situation, but a preemptive threat of 'litigation' directed at all of your partners through a group email does not sit well with me and seems to be incongruent with the spirit of keeping a 'fiduciary duty' and good 'partner-like duty' to your 'NBA joint venturers.'
I would think there has got to be a better tactic than this one."
I take this as a sign that Portland has successfully scared other teams that might have been considering signing Miles. Its interesting that all of this is public, and I wonder how much of this has been leaked or deliberately leaked. The general sentiment of the Stern NBA seems to be to keep these sort of matters under wraps; example: Mark Cuban has made himself an NBA pariah by always publicizing his issues.
Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, has just sent this message to all of the other league owners (and apparently the press):
"With all due respect???although the Cleveland Cavaliers have no interest in signing Darius Miles and will not be signing Darius Miles. I find your email quite peculiar from two standpoints:
1. It's dead wrong. I believe that all 30 NBA teams were and are fully aware of the terms and provisions of the collective bargaining agreement as to which all teams and the NBA are a party to, including the Portland Trailblazers.
2. Are legal threats through a mass email the best way to circumvent the known potential consequences that could result from the Trailblazers decisions and actions they took with respect to Darius Miles?
I fully understand the frustration you and your team's ownership must be feeling in regards to this situation, but a preemptive threat of 'litigation' directed at all of your partners through a group email does not sit well with me and seems to be incongruent with the spirit of keeping a 'fiduciary duty' and good 'partner-like duty' to your 'NBA joint venturers.'
I would think there has got to be a better tactic than this one."
I take this as a sign that Portland has successfully scared other teams that might have been considering signing Miles. Its interesting that all of this is public, and I wonder how much of this has been leaked or deliberately leaked. The general sentiment of the Stern NBA seems to be to keep these sort of matters under wraps; example: Mark Cuban has made himself an NBA pariah by always publicizing his issues.
This letter by Dan Gilbert got out because he carbon copied every team in the league. I took Dan Gilbert's email to say "Hey you idiots signed Miles to that contract and fucked up and now you can get screwed due to your own actions...and now you want to send out punk ass threats??"
KNICK SLAPPED WITH SEX-HARASS SUIT[/b] GUY DRIVER: EDDY CURRY PUT MOVES ON ME
By MELISSA JANE KRONFELD and BRUCE GOLDING Posted: 9:01 pm January 12, 2009
Knicks center Eddy Curry was slapped with a shocking sex-harassment suit Monday by his former driver, who claims the 6-foot-11 hoopster tried to solicit gay sex from him.
The stunning court papers claim Curry, a married father of three, repeatedly approached chauffeur David Kuchinsky "in the nude," allegedly telling him, "Look at me, Dave, look" and "Come and touch it, Dave."
Curry also made Kuchinsky perform "humiliating tasks outside the scope of his employment, such as cleaning up and removing dirty towels [Curry had ejaculated into] so that his wife would not see them," the Manhattan federal court suit says.
Kuchinsky, who is straight and Jewish, also alleges racial discrimination, saying that Curry hurled slurs at him including "f---ing Jew," "cracker," "white slave," "white devil" and "grandmaster of the KKK."
If there's a better college player than Blake Griffin I want to see him....I'm watching him for the third time tonight.....he's ridiculous....a more athletic, better shooting, fundamentally sound Tim Duncan with a decent handle......stooopid good....6:10 and goes for 23 points and 14 boards a night.....just a sophmore......once every ten year player.
Leads the country in rebounds, 1.5 per game ahead of the guy behind him......his Dad is a well known Oklahoma City High School coach and this kid has inbred basketball smarts......high court IQ......and I think the Duncan comparison is pretty close.
Comments
Rush hasnt proved he should keep his minutes.
Daniels who has played well will go back to bolstering the second unit.
Better for them to go thru this now than after the all-star break.
Dudes are bringing thier A-game for the Green.
They miss Posey.
big time.
Correct on all three.
Celts are bored, that's all. These losses don't mean shit.
Atlanta at Orlando
Boston at Cleveland (undefeated at home streak at risk)
Detroit at Denver (first Billups/A.I. match post-trade)
Indiana at L.A. Lakers (feeling Granger's monster game, pretty ill to watch)
Dallas at Phoenix
And they FINALLY fixed my Broadband League Pass.
Zero blackouts!
Blazers: Don't sign Miles
Are they tempting fate?
18 MILLION DOLLARS
for
What a bargain.
I get what the Blazers are trying to do with the letter to each team, basically saying that signing Miles and then playing him for two games just to stick it to the Blazers violates the spirit of the league as a joint venture. But it doesn't make the Blazers look good. If Miles can play at an NBA level then he should be able to play. The bottom line is, Miles should not have been determined to have career ending injuries in the first place.
I think that the Blazers are trying to bully the rest of the league into avoiding Miles because of the controversy, and I don't think it will work. Probably some team will sign Miles for the rest of the season.
RAD
What's wrong w/ their in-house medical staff? Somebody done fucked up the money over there.
Making their point with that letter is the goal, not necessarily winning people over.
It sounds more like "IF you sign and play him, that THIS is what will follow", not necessarily "Don't sign him." (although signing Miles, paying him and not playing him for the sake of bringing down the wrath of Paul Allen seems a bit stupid).
Regardless, teams like the Grizzlies sighing him to a 10 day contract and playing him for the last 2 minutes of the game seems real suspect to me. What do they have to gain from a dick-move like that?
wow. The first ten picks are flooded with scrubs. Although there are some good role players...Q Rich, Eddie House, Hedo Turkoglu, D Mase. Yea, that is quite a shitty draft.
The text of the letter says "IF you sign and play him, that THIS is what will follow" because the letter is intended as a threat, not a warning. If the Blazers pursued legal action they would be on pretty shaky ground, but with Paul Allen's resources they could wage a costly and prolonged battle. In my opinion, they are hoping that fear of such a fracas will make teams think twice about signing Miles.
Putting the Blazers 8 million dollars over the cap could benefit other teams in several ways. When the league redistributes money to from teams over the cap to teams under the cap, any team under the cap would receive about 250,000 more with Miles' contract counting against Portland.
Also, Portland is positioned to be a big player in the free agent market this coming summer, but adding Miles' contract would cut their free salary cap room in half. If another team was hoping to make some moves this summer, why not knock out a competitor by making Miles your fifteenth man?
No, what the letter essentially says is that "If you sign him and DON'T play him, then this may follow".
The actual phrasing is:
If a team signs him and assigns him meaningful minutes, then it has a strong defense to any lawsuit, i.e., "We signed him for the purpose of playing him, not for the purpose of 'adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions'". If they sign him and put him on ice, after letting him see the floor for fractions of two more games, then I don't think a lawsuit against them is on such shakey ground (although I've never looked at any of the relevant documents, besides the text of the e-mail).
Teams often sign players who don't get significant minutes. They are insurance against injury to the players ahead of them on the roster. Sometimes they are just good practice players to compete against the regular rotation players, sometimes they are good "chemistry" guys. The Blazers would have to prove that Miles was not signed for any of these perfectly legitimate reasons. And they would surely not have the backing of the NBA, who would not want to publicly back such an "anti-player" position. Remember, Miles is getting payed no matter if it counts against the Blazers cap or not, he legitimately just wants to play.
Look, having been put on notice, I don't think any team is going to be foolish enough to do what the e-mail refers to, i.e., sign him, put him on the floor for 30 seconds in two games, and then park him. They would obviously finesse it in a way that would allow them to rely upon all of the other explanations for the signing that you referred to. I'm mostly just clarifying what the e-mail says. Even assuming an extreme case where they don't do any of those things, I don't think such a suit is likely to succeed, but it might also survive a motion to dismiss, and press coverage, having your management subjected to depositions, etc. are not appealing prospects.
I don't even know if one franchise could commence an action against another without first going through some sort of intra-joint venture arbitration.
I agree with you, and that is why I am suggesting that the e-mail is mostly bluster. The Blazers are saying that they are willing to make things a pain in the ass for whatever team might sign Miles. Or perhaps the intent of the e-mail is to "pre-tarnish" the reputation of any GM that signs Miles. If the Blazers suggest that any team that signs Miles is just doing so to adversely affect the Blazers, then the signing may result in negative publicity for that team.
For anyone that might fault Portland, they are just making smart business decisions. They thought they were given a gift in Miles' medical retirement, and now that the gift may be taken away they are taking whatever steps they can to keep it.
"With all due respect???although the Cleveland Cavaliers have no interest in signing Darius Miles and will not be signing Darius Miles. I find your email quite peculiar from two standpoints:
1. It's dead wrong. I believe that all 30 NBA teams were and are fully aware of the terms and provisions of the collective bargaining agreement as to which all teams and the NBA are a party to, including the Portland Trailblazers.
2. Are legal threats through a mass email the best way to circumvent the known potential consequences that could result from the Trailblazers decisions and actions they took with respect to Darius Miles?
I fully understand the frustration you and your team's ownership must be feeling in regards to this situation, but a preemptive threat of 'litigation' directed at all of your partners through a group email does not sit well with me and seems to be incongruent with the spirit of keeping a 'fiduciary duty' and good 'partner-like duty' to your 'NBA joint venturers.'
I would think there has got to be a better tactic than this one."
I take this as a sign that Portland has successfully scared other teams that might have been considering signing Miles.
Its interesting that all of this is public, and I wonder how much of this has been leaked or deliberately leaked. The general sentiment of the Stern NBA seems to be to keep these sort of matters under wraps; example: Mark Cuban has made himself an NBA pariah by always publicizing his issues.
This letter by Dan Gilbert got out because he carbon copied every team in the league. I took Dan Gilbert's email to say "Hey you idiots signed Miles to that contract and fucked up and now you can get screwed due to your own actions...and now you want to send out punk ass threats??"
By MELISSA JANE KRONFELD and BRUCE GOLDING
Posted: 9:01 pm
January 12, 2009
Knicks center Eddy Curry was slapped with a shocking sex-harassment suit Monday by his former driver, who claims the 6-foot-11 hoopster tried to solicit gay sex from him.
The stunning court papers claim Curry, a married father of three, repeatedly approached chauffeur David Kuchinsky "in the nude," allegedly telling him, "Look at me, Dave, look" and "Come and touch it, Dave."
Curry also made Kuchinsky perform "humiliating tasks outside the scope of his employment, such as cleaning up and removing dirty towels [Curry had ejaculated into] so that his wife would not see them," the Manhattan federal court suit says.
Kuchinsky, who is straight and Jewish, also alleges racial discrimination, saying that Curry hurled slurs at him including "f---ing Jew," "cracker," "white slave," "white devil" and "grandmaster of the KKK."
(read more)
If there's a better college player than Blake Griffin I want to see him....I'm watching him for the third time tonight.....he's ridiculous....a more athletic, better shooting, fundamentally sound Tim Duncan with a decent handle......stooopid good....6:10 and goes for 23 points and 14 boards a night.....just a sophmore......once every ten year player.