The article has direct quotes from him gossiping about sawing up Miles' bones and whatnot. I'm not going to bother digging up the link since there are direct quotes in the original post, but he was saying that stuff before the season started to scare other teams off of Miles. And I didn't think it was very appropriate then either.
Has Memphis guaranteed Miles a contract for the rest of the season yet after Chris Wallace effusively praised Darius in print in the Oregonian? Wallace even said that Miles was perfoming better than Gay or Mayo. The Blazer legal team is waiting...
Why does Memphis have to give Miles employment for the rest of the season? Why should they be forced to give someone a contract, when their finances won't allwo it?
I would guess it would make the Blazers case significantly weaker. If all the sudden the Grizzlies decide to dump Darius after the second 10 day contract (and therefore, on the Blazers cap space), it gives the Blazers some credence to the thinking that created the email/letter. If they sign him to a contract for the rest of the year, it pretty much shows they weren't in it to just mess with Portlands cap space. The funniest thing is, even with Miles salary being included in the cap space, it realistically doesn't change the plans of the team all that much. There isn't a major block buster-worthy FA out there in 09 (at least, that stands a chance at coming to Portland regardless of their cap situation), and they still have an owner who is willing to re-sign the players necessary, almost no matter what the cost. So if Portland does make a trade (like say, for Gerald Wallace), it won't stop the Blazers from re-signing Oden, LaMarcus, Roy and (I would bet) Rudy. All it would do is make an owner/gm have a bigger chip on their shoulder, and more reason to screw over other teams in the process. I hope that the Grizzlies enjoy the awesome production that Darius will provide them.
Even if the Grizzlies didn't re-sign Darius, I would imagine, given his play, that someone would pick him up.
I was fine with these comments by KP, as long as they are true. He was asked about the severity of the injury and explained why it was that they felt the injury was career ending. Just because Darius is playing doesn't make his statements false either. KP was basically saying that the surgery was one of the worst MF surgeries and that doctors were telling KP that Miles shouldn't play and if it was their son they wouldn't even want him to touch a basketball because the risk of a knee replacement was really high. Darius is a young guy -- you don't want to see him have to get a knee replacement in his 30's or 40's. Doesn't mean he can't play. It means that he probably shouldn't play and that KP wasn't going to be the one allowing him to hurt himself like that. Of course Wojnarowski and others want to spin it a different way, but I don't know why they feel the need to come after KP for it. KP didn't send the email and didn't do anything wrong. If he was the catalyst behind the email, then shame on him for not sending it himself. The email is going to be all but forgotten in another year. Wojnarowski wanted to write something controversial and aggressive. Mission accomplished, I guess.
