Darius Miles' recent signing by the Grizzlies caused more consternation and conversation in Portland than in Memphis it seemed. However after two games and less than nine minutes of action, his stint with the Grizz is over -- for now.

Miles was waived after his second game, more as a timing thing than anything. As Henry Abbott noted on Truehoop yesterday, you'll see a lot of players cut today prior to the deadline for guaranteed contracts. Miles came into the team on unguaranteed money and thus a decision had to be made to avoid him being on the books for the season.

This of course does not mean that he is precluded from returning to the Grizzlies, or another team, this season. Per the Commerical Appeal:

Miles, meanwhile, had a respectable showing in limited action on the court. He appeared to be in good condition and was active on both ends of the floor. Despite missing his two shot attempts and going scoreless, Miles blocked two shots and grabbed a couple of rebounds.

"I don't think you've seen the last of him in the NBA," Wallace said. "He showed he can come back and play in this league."

Miles can still sign a 10-day contract with the Griz or another NBA team.

He said Wallace gave him no indication if the Griz planned to bring him back.

"I'm just glad to have had the opportunity," Miles said. "It was a blessing. Everybody was nice. I can't complain about my time here. I love Memphis, and I thank the Grizzlies."

Miles said he's confident he can contribute in the NBA if given the chance.

"I know I can play," said Miles, who participated in the Boston Celtics training camp before being waived. "It's up to whether people are going to give me a chance."

Of course, there was a lot of interest in Portland amongst Blazers fans as to whether Miles would see out 10 games in the league and thus eat into the Blazers' available cap space this Summer. Dave at Blazersedge yesterday dismissed this talk as pointless, with a very rational explanation of the whys and wherefores of the situation:

Even if it goes the worst possible direction the Darius Miles situation is a disaster for the Blazers like Pabst Blue Ribbon is a full-bodied beer...like a velvet Elvis is chic décor...like Screech and John Bobbitt are top-notch porn stars.

Of course it would be better for the Blazers overall if Darius didn't play 10 games this year.  But even if he plays those games (and that's a big "if"), his salary returning to the cap won't stop the Blazers from doing anything truly vital in their master plan.

He may well catch on again somewhere this season. Good luck to Darius in his endeavours.

The Christmas and New Years period has been a nice little break with all of the festive cheer attached, but now A Stern Warning is back and in better form than the Boston Celtics.

Resuming your regularly scheduled programming, the posts should be coming pretty thick and fast from here on in as I catch up with you on what has been happening both in the NBA and DownUnder.

Oh, and if you hadn't clicked that NBA link above, Darius Miles got waived, Blazers Grizzlies fans... 

-- Mookie

Great news on the Nathan Jawai front, for both Australian basketball fans and those up in sunny Toronto following the Raptors. After a long wait, one that has excluded Jawai from the 24 games to date in the 2008-09 season, the big man has been cleared to play.

The National Post:

"The Toronto Raptors cleared Jawai to begin physical activity after the club had held him out of such procedings because of worry about his heart. In a routine screening before training camp started in October, the Raptors found a cardiac abnormality in Jawai. The club did not say anything further at the time — or since then — because of doctor-patient confidentiality.

But now Jawai has been given the go-ahead to start practising with the club. Up until now, he took the occassional free throws while the team was conducting practice, but that was the extent of his involvement."

Toronto's Globe & Mail:

"The club and Jawai have chosen not to disclose the nature of the problem, although a report in an Australian newspaper quoting his agent suggested it was an enlarged heart. This is good news for Jawai, who has seemed understandably bored and worried during a long stretch of prescribed rest that doctors used to assess his heart condition. Anything more strenuous that a brisk walk was a no-no and his basketball career was seriously up in the air. All I can offer on the kid's potential is that he's a beast with the feet of a ballet dancer -- to paraphrase Maurizio Gherardini - who was on the radar of a lot of teams before the Raptors acquired him. With my own eyes I can attest that he's a good free throw shooting big and has nice touch from two feet with either hand -- that's all I've ever seen him do. For the team it's a chance that they can get a little more from the O'Neal trade than O'Neal. Let's face it, for the Raptors to progress as an organization, they're going to need their Manu Ginobilli moment, where they find a legit star from an unexpected source. Maybe Jawai is it. Now they can find out, at least."

Doug Smith of The Star:

"Jawai's been out since the first day of training camp after a heart abnormality was discovered during pre-camp medical tests. He was told to rest and not do any basketball-related work for an extended period of time so cardiologists he's seen across North Ameria could determine the significance of the "abnormality."

His final visit to a doctor came Tuesday when he was cleared."

Australia's ABC:

Jawai's friend and former Taipans assistant coach Aaron Fearne says Jawai's relieved that he can finally get back on the court.

"He's had to wait this length of time to get an opportunity to get the OK, to get out there and show the NBA, show the world, show Australia, his family what he can do," he said.

"He's over the moon right now. I don't think you can take the smile off his face."

Clearly Jawai's return will be a slow one. He has been out of action for two months now and it is about nine months since he has played competitive basketball with the Cairns Taipans in the 2007-08 NBL season. Add to this fact the upheaval in Toronto with Sam Mitchell having been axed and the logjam upfront, where Jawai will play behind Bosh, O'Neal, Bargnani and Humphries and we shouldn't expect Jawai to set the world alight.

It is great news for big Nate to just have the chance to step onto an NBA court though.

Occasionally something pops up in the world outside of A Stern Warning that cuts transmission and lately some of those things have popped up.

However the wires have not permanently been detached, this is merely a temporary blip in the system and all will be sorted out shortly... before you know it your regularly scheduled programming will be resumed.

Thank you to those who have checked in to find out what is going on. We'll be rockin'n'rollin' again very soon.

Eddie Jordan, goodbye. PJ Carlesimo, we hardly remember you. Sam Mitchell, join the gang.

After a disappointing start to the season, a season preceeded by lofty expectations, the Toronto Raptors sent 2007 NBA Coach of the Year, Sam Mitchell packing.

Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo named longtime assistant coach Jay Triano interim coach and said Triano “in all likelihood” would stay in place for the remainder for the season. His first game will be Friday in Utah against the Jazz.

After strengthening their frontline in the summer with a trade for center Jermaine O’Neal, the Raptors had hoped to challenge the Boston Celtics in the Atlantic Division. Star forward Chris Bosh has responded with the best season of his career and point guard Jose Calderon is an All-Star candidate, but the Raptors have struggled to an 8-9 record. The team is currently on a three-game trip through the West that began with lopsided losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and Nuggets.

“This team is a lot better than a 8-9 record,” Colangelo said on a conference call early Wednesday evening. “…We feel we were not getting the maximization of this roster we had hoped for.”

Jeff at Pete Marasmitch has a love song for 'Smitch as he walks out the door...

Which coach will be next? There must be a few nervous being passed across the benches. I wonder how Reggie Theus is feeling lately.

******

In other NBA curiosities, here are Today's Warnings:

• Which super hero is your favourite NBA player?
• Is it time for the Chronicles of Bargnania? He's my boy...
• Sad news that Cuttino Mobley may have to cut his career short.
• The Ballerblogger Fundamentals are a day old but still a little warm.
• How good are the Blazers? Second in the West, six in a row good. If you've been following the box scores the last couple of games, you'd notice that the Spaniard guard coupling is putting up massively positive +/- figures, injecting great fire off the bench. Latest victim: the Wizards.
• Classic video: Barkley and MJ talk about the homeless on Oprah.
• Are the Suns and Rockets dying a slow death?

Click the "read more" icon to get your daily feed of the best of Aussie basketball news from across the blogs:

The NBA All-Star Game of 1989 was one full of stars. It had MJ, it had Sir Charles Barkley, the Mailman, the Human Highlight Film, Clyde the Glide, Zeke and even Kareem. The game did lack a certain Bird and Magic touch, but apart from that, what more could you ask for as an NBA fan?

In the continuing Do You Remember? series, we have video of the top 20 plays of the game. Below the video you will find the game information provided by the youtube uploader. Enjoy the trip back in time...

The Portland Trail Blazers made a real statement with their 101-86 victory over the New Orleans Hornets at the Rose Garden last night. This was about proving that they belong as a playoff team -- one that will make some noise.

In what was a tight game throughout, the Blazers refused to give in to the Hornets and pulled away with a 17-0 run in the third that asserted their dominance and showed great poise.

At one point, Brandon Roy was wrestled on a hard shooting foul by David West. Formerly a player that many considered to be underrated, that play simply made him look like a thug -- an unnecessary action. Take a look at this video courtesy of BustaBucket to get a feel for the play:

Roy led the Blazers on the night with 25 points, 10 assists and six rebounds, as they improved to 11-6 (boxscore).

Truehoop had this today on Stephen Curry and the unusual attention he has attracted of late:

Davidson's Stephen Curry was the darling of the NCAA tournament last year, and he has only gotten better. Last night, he played Loyola, and they double-teamed him. There are different kinds of doubles. Some start on the catch. Some start when the star puts the ball on the floor. This one started at the opening buzzer. Just two guys, all night long. Curry did an amazingly mature thing: He simply stood in the corner, scored zero points, and let his four-on-three teammates whoop it up, having a field day. Davidson won by a country mile, and Loyola's coach Jimmy Patsos is quoted by the Associated Press saying: "We had to play against an NBA player tonight. Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I'm a history major. They're going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?" I'm not a history major, but I'll remember that Coach Patsos stuck with a crazy scheme long after it was proven to have been a crazy scheme, assuring his team a loss.

Many may know Curry as the son of former NBA sharpshooter, Dell Curry. However this Curry seems destined to go on to be much more famous than his father, even representing his country at the 2007 U19 FIBA World Championships in Serbia.

Fox Sports had this to say on the Curry-love going on in the Loyola-Davidson game:

Stephen Curry has seen plenty of defenses. Box-and-ones, diamond-and-ones, triangle-and-twos and plenty of double teams throughout his career.

But this was ridiculous. 

From the moment the ball was tossed up to start Tuesday night’s game against Loyola (Md.), Davidson’s star guard was hounded by two defenders.

They didn't leave him - no matter where he went.

That was the instruction put forth by Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos, who has added to his recent antics - which included sitting down the end of the bench a couple weeks ago for the entire game and handing off the coaching duties to his assistants in a loss to Cornell.

"I’ve never seen anything like it,” Davidson coach Bob McKillop told FOXSports.com shortly after the victory. “From the time the ball entered the court, there were two guys on him and they didn’t leave him the entire game.”

"I felt like I was dreaming,” Curry added. "It was the weirdest thing ever."

Curry put up the goose-egg for the first time in his career.

That’s right. No points on just three shots against Loyola.

Most players would have called it a nightmare instead of a dream. Not Curry.

Instead of trying to force shots and get his numbers, Curry decided to stand in the corner and take the two defenders with him, allowing his teammates to play four-on-three the entire game.

"I had the best seat in the house," Curry said. 

FIBA had this video interview with the rising star: