Darius Miles on new book, whether Clippers should trade Kawhi Leonard

Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz are joined by former NBA player and host of “The Knuckleheads” podcast Darius Miles to discuss his new book and give his thoughts on whether the Los Angeles Clippers should move on from Kawhi Leonard. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.

Video Transcript

Everybody sees the highlights, but nobody tells you what it really takes to get there or what comes after.

I’ve lived the highs, the setbacks, and the lessons that changed me for life.

Now I’m ready to tell my story.

That is the, caption from Darius Miles regarding the book, What They Don’t Tell You Before the League.

Darius joins us now.

Darius, man, you were the third overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft.

I love the concept of this book.

We appreciate your time.

If you were sitting down with the top four picks in this year’s draft, we were talking about them a minute ago.

Everybody’s just enraged about these guys.

Everybody wants to talk about these guys.

What, what’s the one thing you would make sure they all understand as they get drafted?

financial literacy would probably be one of the, the first things I’d tell them.

Probably the first millionaire of their family, so you wanna kinda construct your money and, and, and get your financial situation together so you won’t have to worry about it throughout your career.

Your book touches on so much: bankruptcy, grief, depression, even open heart surgery.

So why’d you decide to open up and, and really take this approach?

thanks to Stephanie Williams.

She’s the author of my book.

she’s reached out to me, and I always wanted to write a book, but I really didn’t know where to start at.

but I just feel like it wa- it was, it, it needed to be said.

And, I, I done seen a lot of players’ books, but we never touched on these points.

So I just used my story to just tell about the mistakes that I made, some of the decisions that I made, some of the depression.

When you get into a business, it’s, you’re not gonna play like you used to play in high school and college.

You’re not gonna probably be the superstar of the team.

So, you know, you gotta adjust ’cause it’s a business now.

Guys make more money than you, so they might get more playing time than you.

I never spoke about my heart surgery, to nobody, ’cause I never wanted to be feeling like I need sympathy or be a victim.

I never spoke about the case that I went through, with the NBA, but I wanted to make sure I put that out there and speak in a positive light.

And to kinda give some of the young, the future guys, the older guys, and people that’s not playing sports that has a regular job a different type of perspective on life and the decisions that you make.

Darius, I’m making you the GM, team president.

You’re the governor.

You got the whole thing.

You are the Clippers.

How do you make the Clippers again as relevant as you guys did?

I think that you just have to, kinda clean slate and make some moves.

I love Kawhi Leonard.

I loved Kawhi Leonard as a Clipper.

I don’t wanna let him go, but he probably the only one that you have to have some leverage to get out there and get some more picks or get some more players.

So, I think it’s, time for they probably to let Kawhi go, which I hate to say that.

But I think they need to clean slate it.

They got a young Darius Garland.

They got Bennett.

they just going in a new direction, so I think they’ll This pick and, and them using Kawhi Leonard can make enough moves to kind of get them a nice young team that can, that can play.

One thing I love about the Clippers that I hope they never do is keep Tyronn Lue as the coach.

What he’s had to go through these last couple of years with not having players in, losing players, and still keeping the Clippers relevant is, is a blessing.

He’s one of the best coach in the league, so I think that’s the best thing they have.

Why don’t you think Kawhi can fit into the future of this Clippers organization?

I, I think he can, but I think that he’s the only valuable piece that they can go and get va- other value back from.

Like I say, I’m a super Kawhi Leonard fan, and I don’t want Kawhi Leonard to wear another jersey but the Clippers for the rest of his career.

But if I have to be a GM, I have to look into he’s the most valuable piece I got to get draft picks and to get other players to come in.

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