Darius Miles
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| - | '''Darius LaVar Miles''' (born [[October 9]], [[1981]]) is an American professional [[basketball]] player who plays at [[Small forward]]. | + | '''Darius LaVar Miles''' (born [[October 9]], [[1981]]) is a former American professional [[basketball]] player who played at [[Small forward]]. |
| Miles attended [[East St. Louis High School (IL)|East St. Louis High School]], which, under Coach [[Bennie Lewis]], won third place in the Illinois state high school championship in 2000. | Miles attended [[East St. Louis High School (IL)|East St. Louis High School]], which, under Coach [[Bennie Lewis]], won third place in the Illinois state high school championship in 2000. | ||
Revision as of 06:45, 1 May 2012
 Miles playing for the Memphis Grizzlies. | ||
| No. 21, 23, 9 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Small forward | ||
| Personal Information | ||
| Date of birth: October 9, 1981 | ||
| Place of birth: Belleville, Illinois | ||
Nationality:  American
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| Height: 6 ft 9 in | Weight: 235 lbs | |
| Career Information | ||
| High School: East St. Louis (St. Louis, Illinois) | ||
| NBA Draft: 2000; Round: 1 / Pick: 3rd | ||
| Selected by the Los Angeles Clippers | ||
| Debut: 2000 for the Los Angeles Clippers | ||
| Last debut: 2009 for the Memphis Grizzlies | ||
| Career history | ||
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| Career Highlights and Awards | ||
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| Darius Miles at NBA.com | ||
Darius LaVar Miles (born October 9, 1981) is a former American professional basketball player who played at Small forward.
Miles attended East St. Louis High School, which, under Coach Bennie Lewis, won third place in the Illinois state high school championship in 2000.
After failing to receive a qualifying SAT score to attend St. John's University, Miles entered the 2000 NBA Draft and was selected by the Los Angeles Clippers as the 3rd overall pick. At the time it was the highest that a player entering the NBA directly from high school had ever been drafted.
For the next two NBA seasons, Miles, a 6' 9", 210 pound (95 kg) small forward, formed, along with Lamar Odom, Quentin Richardson, and Elton Brand, the core of a young Clippers team that became popular among young basketball fans for their exciting, high-flying style of play.
Prior to the 2002-03 season, he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers along with Harold Jamison for Andre Miller and Bryant Stith. The Cavaliers had a disastrous 17-65 season, with Miles' own futility being the target of much media criticism. Luckily, the Cavaliers, with the worst record in the league, won the NBA Draft Lottery and were able to select high school phenom LeBron James, a close friend of Miles', with the first pick in the 2003 NBA Draft.
With a budding superstar in James who also played small forward, Cleveland no longer needed Miles and traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers during the 2003-04 season in exchange for Jeff McInnis. While in Portland, Miles began to flash some of the talent that he had started to show with the Clippers before being traded. The Blazers signed him to a six-year, USD$48 million contract extension after the season.
During the 2004-05 season, Miles made headlines after a confrontation with then-coach Maurice Cheeks in which he reportedly insulted him with racial slurs (Miles and Cheeks are both black) and remarked he did not care if the team were to lose the next 20 games since Cheeks was going to be fired anyway. Miles was suspended two games, considered by many to be a lenient punishment, and the team was criticized for not taking a harsher stance on the issue. His statements were prophetic: Cheeks was soon fired, and the team proceeded to lose nearly all of its remaining games.
In the 2005-06 season, Miles began on a tear. In the first regular season game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Miles scored 32 points and collected 11 rebounds to go with 5 assists, 5 steals and 3 blocked shots. He continued the season scoring and grabbing rebounds until he was injured and sidelined for nearly 3 months. He returned in early February with lackluster play. With the trading deadline coming, he upped his playing performance in hopes of finishing his season with a different team. When the deadline passed and he found himself still on the same team and Ruben Patterson shipped out, his desire and motivation to play appeared to drop significantly.
Miles missed the entire 2006-07 NBA season due to microfracture surgery. Since Miles' game relies on quickness and explosiveness, it is not known how he will adjust upon his return to the NBA, as microfracture surgery requires at least a year or more to return to near pre-surgery form.
Acting Career
Miles had a role in the 2004 movie The Perfect Score, as a high school basketball star who needs to achieve a qualifying SAT score to attend St. John's University, closely paralleling his real life situation coming out of high school. His character attends college at the conclusion of the movie. He also appeared in National Lampoon's Van Wilder, along with then-Clipper teammates Michael Olowokandi and Quentin Richardson, in 2002. There was also a documentary titled The Youngest Guns, which detailed Miles's and Richardson's first few years in the NBA, released in 2004.
