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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, July 25, 2009

Blazers sign veteran guard


Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Andre Miller

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The Portland Trail Blazers signed veteran free agent guard Andre Miller to a three-year, $21 million deal yesterday.

Miller, whose NBA career has spanned 10 seasons with four teams, averaged 16.3 points and 6.5 assists as a starter for the Philadelphia 76ers last season.

"I'm just looking forward to the challenge, you know?" Miller said in a conference call. "I know Portland wants to accomplish a lot of things, and I want to add to that."

Miller joins point guards Steve Blake and Jerryd Bayless with the Blazers, the second-youngest team in the NBA last season. Portland won 54 games and advanced to the playoffs for the first time since 2003.

Miller has played an NBA-high 530 straight games. He has missed just three in his career.

The 33-year-old Miller went to the Sixers in 2006 in a midseason trade with the Denver Nuggets that involved Allen Iverson.

Miller met with Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard and coach Nate McMillan at a restaurant in Las Vegas earlier this week.

Pritchard said he was impressed with how much Miller knew about the Blazers offense.

"Andre was terrific. He knew our team. He knew how he could help our team. He seemed like a coach," Pritchard said.

Miller was the eighth overall pick in the 1999 draft out of Utah by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Over his career, he has averaged 14.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists in 815 games, 768 starts. He has 174 career double-doubles.

VIDEOGATE

NIKE RETURNS TAPES OF LEBRON TO MEDIA

Nike says it is returning videotapes it confiscated of NBA star LeBron James getting dunked on at a recent basketball camp.

Nike said it is giving back tapes to two accredited journalists who filmed Xavier's Jordan Crawford dunking over James during a recent pickup game at a skills academy run by the superstar at the University of Akron. The sports apparel giant said only one of the tapes captured the infamous dunk, which has been an Internet sensation.

Nike said it took the tapes based on its media guidelines that no pickup games be filmed.

This week, videos emerged of Crawford's dunk in which he drove the lane and slammed over James, who was not guarding him and was the last defender between Crawford and the basket.

ELSEWHERE

Cavaliers: Restricted free-agent forward Jamario Moon is joining Cleveland. The Miami Heat said yesterday they had decided not to match the offer sheet Moon signed with Cleveland.