<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">TUALATIN -- Before there was a "Hello," and before there was a "How are you?", the first meeting between new Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan and forward Darius Miles began with the coach asking the player a direct question: "Do you want to be here?" "I told him 'No,' " Miles said. Seven months later, after a season in which his talent, effort and desire to be in Portland have been in question, a frustrated Miles remains steadfast that the Blazers should trade him. "Get me out of here," Miles said Thursday in an hourlong interview with The Oregonian. "That's all I can say. Get me out of here. I want to leave. I really don't want to be here. It's just crazy." As Miles sees it, his efforts were questioned during a season in which he became a scapegoat for the franchise's many problems while playing hurt. The Blazers signed Miles to a six-year, $48 million contract in 2004, identifying him as a foundation block to their rebuilding effort because of his height (6 foot 9) athleticism, sometimes dynamic play and relatively young age (24). Miles said in that first September meeting with McMillan, when he told the coach he didn't want to be in Portland, the coach asked him why. "I said there was a lot of stuff that went down last year that I was the fallback guy on. Everything was blamed on me, the whole season. And this season repeated itself," Miles said. "I played 40 games, and we lost like 61 games. How can you blame a whole season on me when I played only 40 games? It's just been crazy. I feel there is no support, no backbone, that they always got to have a fallback guy." </div> Sources
