Late this season, as the Portland Trailblazers were stumbling home to an NBA worst 21-61, Darius Miles and Zach Randolph decided they had suffered enough.

On back to back nights in the final week of the season, both Miles and Randolph took it upon themselves to simply pack up and leave games without as much as a courtesy nod to their coach, GM, fans or owner.

"Sup, dude. I'm out."

That's all it would have taken to at least had some kind of honor in leaving games at halftime. How hard can it be?

At least then, everyone would know where you are.

Like: "Hey, where's Darius? I swear he was just playing in this game in the first half?"

"Dude bolted," somebody could have said. "Wearin' street clothes."

I mean it's hard to blame these guys. Their team sucked! And sucked bad. Sucked golf balls through a 50-foot garden hose kind of bad. And I suppose - suppose - that you might want to blame them for this suckitude.

But come on. How could THEY be the problem? They have huge contracts. Those guys are the stars! It can't be them. Could it?

This latest round of jaw-dropping arrogance from the Jailblazers is enough to recommend a first in pro sports. The "death penalty."

No, not for the players. The team. The franchise.

Kill it. Nuke it. Plow it under. Say it's all been a huge mistake. Apologize to the fans in Portland whose once undying love for the team has turned as sour as goat-cheese in your gym bag.

Only a handful of college programs have been sentenced to death. SMU football for one was gassed back in the 1980s for cheating so rampant, it even shocked neighboring members of the SEC - a league that feels it has a patent on skirtin' regulations to bring in gridiron talent.

So let's give the Portland Trailblazers the death penalty. It's about the only thing left that will stop the madness.

The other day, me and some of the fellas were playing a rousing game of "remember that time when ..."

It was just one of us after another recounting incredibly stupid, violent, petty, arrogant, or shameful Blazer "episodes." And the tales never seemed to end! In fact, if you came from another country and were told that ALL of these things had happened to ONE franchise in a span of like 15 years, you would say we were making it up.

Here. Remember that time when ...

... Rasheed Wallace showed his solidarity for his teammates, by throwing a towel in the face of Arvidas Sabonis during a game while he was sitting on the bench. Oh crazy, Sheed! What will you do next?

espn.go.com/dickvitale/vcolumn010420Shaq-Rasheed.html

... Sheed decided it would be cool to throw a basketball some 100 feet at the head of another teammate? Of course, he hit the mark like a tomahawk cruise missile and dropped Ruben Boumtje Boumtje like a bad transmission. Did he apologize, agree to buy the guy dinner or at least go get a trainer? Nah. He ran like a little girl, giggling with his buddy Bonzi Wells.

hoopshype.com/columns/wallace_mcintyre.htm

... Wells flipped off a fan in Philadelphia, and then claimed he was unaware of it even happening, saying that he "blacked out a lot."

twistedfans.com/2003/11/bonzi-wells-apologizes-for-whatever-it.asp

... Wells yelled at his Coach Maurice Cheeks because he got yanked from the game for taking crappy shots and missing?

sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1677331

... Wells intentionally hit the referee and verbally abused him? The league remembers. Good times, good times.

highbeam.com/doc/1G1:67504345/NOTES%3B+Blazers+Wells

... Rueben Patterson raped his nanny? Oh yeah, the victim said she had her head palmed like a basketball and was forced to perform a sex act on the burly 6-8 forward while she was living in his home, caring for his children. Reuben avoided any jail time whatsoever in the deal, instead just getting "house arrest." In the off-season. Super.

abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=124245&page=1

... Isiah Rider got caught smoking weed - out of a crudely fashioned beer can! I mean come on J.R! You can afford a cool skull-bong! You're in the NBA!

... Damon Stoudamire decided that walking through an airport metal detector with weed in a fistful of aluminum foil, wasn't going to cause any problems. What? Tin foil is metal? Duh.

sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=nba&id=1773191

... Players were so un-interested in being cheery at a Christmas tree giveaway, that they stood around talking on cell phones, making fans fetch their own pens for autographs? Said Rasheed Wallace when somebody asked him to help lift a tree onto a car: "I'm a supervisor."

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/news/2002/01/18/flash122401/index.html

... The team management itself, got into the punk act, when Blazers fan Katherine Topaz and her boyfriend's eight-year-old son brandished a TRADE WHITSITT sign. When Topaz refused to put it away, she was ejected from the Rose Garden. After her plight made national news and she became a symbol of the disenfranchised fan, Whitsitt apologized to Topaz and the team sent her a gift basket--albeit with $5.38 in postage due.

... High schooler Qyntal Woods threw an injured pit bull out his moving car in the streets of downtown Portland? Turns out Woods was breeding dogs to fight in his backyard. Wonderful.

... Woods got stopped by the police, and because his driver's license was already suspended, instead showed the cop his rookie card as ID?

The list would go on and on, but who has time to thoroughly research everything? I had even forgotten about the low-level knuckleheads with various entries to the Blazer rap sheet like Vincent Askew, Stacey Augmon, Erick Barkley, Marcus Brown, Kelvin Cato and others.

Here, you want to fill out the complete rap sheet? Go ahead, be my guest. Better grab a Snickers, though, because you won't be going anywhere for a while.

oregonlive.com/blazers/oregonian/index.ssf?/blazers/oregonian/blazersblotter.frame

So go ahead, David Stern. Do what you need to do. Whack 'em. The Blazers have already struck out on getting a better stadium lease, and his empty threats to cities like Portland and Seattle about "not wanting to have an NBA team" are playing like a punch line.

It would be the only honorable thing left to do.