According To This Guy they have... (PS: He's inaccurate, though, about Whitsitt extending Miles, isn't he?)
Except that isn't what happened, which almost makes this whole article unreadable. He would def. have a lawsuit if their distorted view (like most of the medias) was reality.
I've noticed that every single media outlet has simplified it down to "if you sign Miles we will sue you". That's not what happened. We said "if you sign Miles with the intent to harm the Portland Trail Blazers, we will sue you." Once again the media can't read... or write.
Yeah, and its even less than that. Its if you sign Miles with only the intention of messing w/ Portlands Capspace and not for his services, we will take some form of action against you, which could include litigation. And of course, as seen by many of the fans that came to our board, they are brainwashed by what the media said and take it as a fact, which hurts Portland much more, which is why it was a bad move.
The fact that Miles was able to sign a contract later that same day makes Miles' case against the blazers rather weak. barfo
That's the problem. Unless you have smoking gun evidence (an email, an informant, etc.), it is up to debate. Because of this email, any team that signed Miles knew that the Blazers were going to scrutinize the decision and that you are at risk of being sued by the Blazers. Even if you did not have a malicious intent, the Blazers and their army of lawyers could argue that you did. So... I think that the union/Miles potentially has an argument, even if the threat was limited to teams with a malicious intent. I think the email did reduce Miles' value. Let's say you have two equal players that you are considering as a team. Then this email comes out about player B. You are logically going to prefer player A, all things being equal. So if you were considering Miles before the email (maybe you even thought that Miles was marginally better than another FA option). After this email, a team owner would probably look somewhere else. It is not as if Miles is that good anyway, so I think people trying to split hairs on this are missing the practical effect of this email. Now, since the Grizz picked him up again, the email probably helped Miles. So, as to not create the perception of impropriety, the Grizz are more likely to sign him for the rest of the season to help prove that they did not have a malicious intent but genuinely thought he was helping their team. They may not do this, but they are more likely to, to help build their case that the signing was not malicious.
If the Blazers did sue a team, I am sure they would ask for email records to be turned over as evidence.
If the Grizz thought he was genuinly helping their team, then why did they release him and not make his contract permanent/season long?
In law what is actually said is not important, what is is what is interpreted from what is said. (<-- Best sentence ever!) It's very easy to look at that email and come away with the interpretation that the Blazers were trying to keep Miles unemployed. At the least you could effectively argue that the Blazers made it harder for Miles to get employment because teams feared litigation. IMO Portland could not successfully defend that. People are defending the Blazers because that's what homers do. But anyone with even elementary business sense knows that what the Blazers did was unprofessional at best. Pritchard was obviously against this move and Allen and Miller have made Pritchard's job of making a trade UNMEASURABLY MORE DIFFICULT. I'd bet that Pritchard has already sent out a private apology to every last team in the league This is the THIRD TIME PAUL ALLEN HAS SCREWED THIS TEAM WITH MILES!!! Paulie, you have one of the best GM's in the NBA. Stop screwing with this team and let Pritchard do his job. If Miles wants to sue he can. I think it would either be settled out of court or Miles would win.
The article is garbage. Starts out with a FALSE statement and a misquote. What do you expect after that? Briliant deduction? Or, maybe more horseshit?
Lawsuits prove intent every day - evidence would include their actions, depositions, internal emails, statements made, etc. It's not that hard to do really.
Most anybody can sue for many different reasons. Of course Miles can sue. Facts on the real world have significantly reduced any grounds that said e-mail prevented Miles from obtaining NBA work as Miles was immediately offerered a new contract. What is he going to sue for? What are his damages? It has been a while since we have seen so much horseshit, and so many false statements and misquotes and baloney extrapolations as the Miles situation.
Miles and his agent already threatened to sue the Blazers over the release of medical info. Also there may be more going on here... perhaps agents are pissed the Blazers medically retired Miles... it didn't happen with Livingston did it? (And his leg pretty much separated at the knee) They let him finish out his contract didn't they? (though it was rookie) I bet they could have medically retired him. Maybe agents don't appreciate teams medically retiring players because of the stigma it puts on them if they do try to make a comeback.
The question was asked and I answered it. Sorry to offend you by doing so. That Miles signed with Memphis is legally irrelevant to the Blazers and actually helps Miles case. He can say he might have received better offers from other teams. And he can point to how quickly he was signed and use that as evidence of his ability to get offers from other teams. Then he can point to the Blazers email and say it shows the Blazers were aware that Miles was being discussed my MULTIPLE TEAMS. The Blazers won't be able to disprove that or defend it. The email exposed the Blazers. The only outcome that email could have is to upset colleagues and put the Blazers on the defensive. Sending the email had no potential for any positives whatsoever. It was a business blunder you'd expect to see by W Bush, not by an NBA GM. In fact it's such an obvious blunder it was either Paul Allen himself that made the decision or the team is setting up Larry Miller to be ousted from the team. The email was incompetent, simple as a cheese sandwich. Not really, you're just being hyperbolic.
The responses to this guy's article were dead on. Sounds like a lot of Blazer fans get it. http://www.examiner.com/x-1846-Port...-Trail-Blazers-hand-a-lawsuit-to-Darius-Miles
I wonder how this is going to affect the way that other teams deal with the Blazers when discussing potential deals. This can't be good.
I doubt any other team, in a similar situation, wouldn't have a similar type response. I doubt this makes a difference to anyone, and to those who use it as a reason why they won't work with KP (or the Blazers organization) they just needed a reason to not trade with KP, so they don't end up getting absolutely Pritchslapped by Kevin.
What the fuck are you talking about? Huh. Interesting point. Too bad it is so completely wrong. Miles being hired by the Grizz does eviserate any claim Miles may have had in regards to this "smoking e-mail" that has got so much media attention - most of the media having got it wrong, and convincing too many people that it said something it never did. Your contention that any Miles case using the e-mail is improved after being hired by the Griz means what? That you don't know anything about this subject? Not sure. Another interesting point. I don't agree. Neither do the Blazers. I agree it has turned into a PR blunder, but that is as much to do with how the media deals so often covers stories like this. As happens again and again, the media end up looking just as bad as any of the other actors.
