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LaMarcus Aldridge Reveals Hilarious $2,000 Darius Miles Story From Blazers Days
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- LaMarcus Aldridge Reveals Hilarious $2,000 Darius Miles Story From Blazers Days
(Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
LaMarcus Aldridge learned pretty quickly that being an NBA rookie could come with some unexpected perks.
One of them was apparently keeping the change.
Aldridge recently looked back on his rookie season with the Portland Trail Blazers during an appearance on the "Knuckleheads" podcast with former NBA players Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles.
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The conversation eventually turned toward a night out in Portland with Miles and Zach Randolph , when Aldridge was given a relatively simple rookie assignment.
Miles wanted a drink.
He also handed Aldridge $2,000 to get it.
"We went out one time and partied at, like, a little rinky-dink club or whatever, and we kicking it," Aldridge recalled. "And I think Z-Bo showed up late."
Aldridge said Miles eventually handed him "two racks" and told the rookie to go get some drinks. When Aldridge asked what Miles wanted, the request turned out to be much cheaper than the amount of cash he had been given.
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Miles ordered one drink.
Then Aldridge made a business decision.
"I spent $25 on that drink and the other $1,900 in my pocket, and I went home," Aldridge said.
The math isn't perfect — $2,000 minus $25 would leave $1,975 — though that hardly seems to have bothered Aldridge at the time.
Neither did Miles.
Aldridge remembered the club being located downtown and said Miles never asked him to return the remaining cash.
Nearly two decades later, he was telling the story directly to the teammate who gave it to him.
The anecdote also comes from an interesting period in Blazers history.
Aldridge arrived in Portland as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft after the Chicago Bulls selected him and traded his rights to the Blazers on draft night.
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Randolph was still Portland's leading scorer during Aldridge's rookie season, averaging 23.6 points and 10.1 rebounds per game before being traded to the New York Knicks the following summer.
Miles' situation was much different.
A serious knee injury prevented him from appearing in a game during Aldridge's rookie season. Miles never played another regular-season game for Portland, eventually returning to the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2008-09.
Aldridge went in the opposite direction.
He developed from the rookie being sent to grab drinks into one of the best players of the next era of Blazers basketball.
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Aldridge spent nine seasons in Portland before signing with the San Antonio Spurs in 2015. He ultimately became a seven-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA selection across a 16-season career, with his final NBA appearances coming for the Brooklyn Nets .
There are plenty of bigger memories from those nine seasons in Portland.
Getting handed $2,000 for a $25 drink apparently stuck around, too.
