Darius Miles the Ghost

Remember D.Miles? Remember how, if you are a Blazer fan, we cringed at his very prescence? The contract, the lack of work ethic, the bad attitude, the cancer. He came to town and tantalized us with flashes of his talent, making us think maybe he would work out in Portland. Remember when he nicknamed himself 'The Punisher'? We only hated him more for this, clearly the only thing being punished was the franchise.

Due to the above negatives, the team has wisely preferred he not hang around with the young squad. He's not at games, which is kind of a bummer because he did wear really nice suits. We never see him anymore. We don't even hear tabloid-like reports of his exploits any more (remember the sort-of news of him downtown having a drink while he was supposedly scheduled for rehab? Pure Inquirer, baby).

Poof.

Darius Miles has vanished from the collective consciousness of us all. Like a Ninja Turtle with a smoke screen. I haven't been able to find anybody that really knows what he's been up to. Even worse for Miles is that I haven't found anybody who cares. He clearly doesn't anger us anymore, which probably means we've stopped even pretending to care. We likely won't hear of him again until this summer, I really doubt he'll be traded. Not even Isiah would touch him now, and when Isiah won't touch you, nobody will touch you. But we'll see if he attempts a comeback (and thus returns to his role as franchise punisher), or if the Blazer are able to orchestrate a buy-out/insurance break kind of deal where they can at least reduce the impact of that contract.

To me, it has just been too much of a tumultuous ride to end so quietly. Doesn't feel right. Come on D., low-profile was never your style.