Portland Trailblazers' Larry Miller Going the Extra "Mile"

What would happen if you realized you screwed up big time at your job and you knew everyone would notice? What would you do? Would you try and sweep it under the rug and play it off as a minor misstep?

Would you issue a massive apology through your company's PR department and hope that the sympathy created is enough to save your career?

Or would you go on the offensive—proclaiming that anyone trying to take advantage of that mistake would find many more hassle than success if they chose to tangle with you?

Based upon the situation, I might choose differently, but I certainly can't fault Blazers' President Larry Miller for what he did regarding the Darius Miles mess. The mistake in the first place for Portland was taking on Miles and his inflated contract.

But Miller certainly took some controversial steps to ensure that he and the Blazers would not be crippled by that deal.

After waiving the often-injured Miles, Portland had no reason to believe that he would surface in the NBA again—at least not for a meaningful amount of time. His knees were shot and he was already facing a 10-game suspension handed down by the NBA.

Yet, when it did indeed look like that Miles would once again sniff the stink of an NBA locker room and squeak his sneakers on hardwood floors in front of thousands, Miller went into crisis mode.

According to some NBA GMs, Miller and company ripped into Miles' work ethic and potential future productivity to NBA squads.

After Memphis cut Miles this season, the Blazers sent out a league-wide memo threatening legal action against any team that signed him. You see, if Miles played in enough games, his salary would be counted against Portland's cap which in turn would make it extremely difficult for the Blazers to sign an impact free agent in the impending future.

Not that there is going to be anyone imminently available (LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony...just to name a few).

Now here's the reality of the situation: Miles is going to play in enough games, and it is going to hurt the Blazers. The NBA, nor the Players Union, is going to take any legal action against the Blazers because it seems as if Miles was not adversely affected by the threat—after all the Grizzlies did indeed sign him to a 10-day contract.

So I ask you again. If you were Miller, what would you do? Now what he did was far from innocent and certainly isn't in any danger of epitomizing good ethics, but in a profession as transparent and as high profile as running a professional basketball franchise, it's hard not to be the aggressor and bare some teeth once in awhile.

If Miller wants to keep his job, the Blazers need to be successful. In order for the Blazers to be successful, they must have impact players.

But now with Portland finding itself among the youngest and most prolific teams in the Western Conference, the draft is hardly an option to acquire a game changer—free agency is the preferred and seemingly only route.

So if Miles' contract kills any chances that Portland has at acquiring a championship player for their lineup, can you really fault Miller for trying to save his job?

He violated no laws and committed no crime. Sure, he said some nasty things and flexed his legal muscle. Is that a violation?

The Association is not blowing the whistle and calling a foul on this one, neither should anyone else. After all, nice guys will be eaten alive in this business if they pull their punches.

So before we as fans criticize Miller and call him a chump for what he did, let's be sure that we realize the situation that he's in--trying to keep his job.

It's very easy for us to sip our coffee in front of our computers at work or at home and judge Larry Miller; we can call him every name in the book to our friends and everyone will agree with us.

But for just one second, put yourself in his shoes--what would you do?  It's a completely different world when your the head honcho in the lime light isn't it?

So let's at least pull some of our punches for now, while Miller goes on the attack.

After all--in his case--sometimes it's better to swing softly and miss than it is to stand by and get hit hard—especially in the pocketbook.