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Crisis Management with Larry Miller

Mon 12th, January 2009

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - It's always interesting to watch people handle a crisis.

In politics, the usual modus operandi is deny, deny, deny. A cheating spouse can always revert to emotional blackmail and, in the world of sports, the current rage seems to be throwing someone under the bus to save your own skin.

Portland Trail Blazers president Larry Miller went in a different direction when he reached a fork in the road last week. Instead of playing by the book and throwing an underling to the dogs over the Darius Miles debacle, Miller created his very own crisis management handbook -- entitled "threaten the competition."

In case you missed it, Miller and the Blazers attempted to bully the entire league by promising litigation if any team signed Miles, the third overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft that might be better known for his roles in Van Wilder and The Perfect Score than anything he has done on the court.

The reason?

Portland received salary cap benefits when Miles' knee injury was ruled career-ending. If the former East St. Louis high school star can play in two more games this season, the Blazers will be back on the hook for the $18 million remaining on his previous contract with the team.

Perhaps more importantly, all that cash would count against the team's salary cap and force the Trail Blazers to pay a luxury tax, forcing them out of this summer's free-agent sweepstakes.

As one of the league's ascending teams, with a legitimate superstar in Brandon Roy and an ever-improving big man in Greg Oden, Portland figured to be a major player this summer.

Sensing his plans going awry, a desperate Miller rolled the dice.

"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," Miller wrote in the e- mail to each NBA team.

"Such conduct by a team would violate its fiduciary duty as an NBA joint venturer. In addition, persons or entities involved in such conduct may be individually liable to the Portland Trail Blazers for tortuously interfering with the Portland Trail Blazers contract rights and perspective economic opportunities. Please be aware that if a team engages in such conduct, the Portland Trail Blazers will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation."

When talking to reporters, Miller claimed that his team wasn't trying to block Miles' return to the NBA, just sending a "message" to possible Western Conference rivals who wanted to intentionally hurt their financial interests.

"We were hearing a lot of rumblings and rumors that there were teams out there planning to sign Darius Miles specifically and maliciously to hurt our organization," Miller said. "This was our way of responding to that and letting folks know that we were not going to take it sitting down."

Of course, the huge hole in that logic was that the Blazers, who are currently two games behind Denver in the Northwest Division, were screwed whether the Nuggets or, say, the Philadelphia 76ers signed Miles.

The NBA didn't make a big deal of Miller's antics but made sure to inform every team that Miles had cleared waivers and was eligible to be signed to a standard contract.

The NBAPA, however, was a bit more effusive with its response.

"We are shocked at the brazen attempt by the Portland Trail Blazers to try to prevent Darius Miles from continuing his NBA career," executive director, Billy Hunter said in a statement. "Their attempt to intimidate the other 29 NBA teams by threatening frivolous litigation merely for signing this capable NBA veteran is a clear violation of the anti-collusion and other provisions of our Collective Bargaining Agreement. We will vigorously defend Darius' rights."

In the end, they never had too.

The Memphis Grizzlies guffawed and re-signed Miles on Saturday. When he avoids a DNP-CD two more times, the Blazers will be on the hook for the entire $18 million.

If I were Miller, I would have just thrown an intern under the bus.