Former Los Angeles Clippers icon Darius Miles published a piece on The Players Tribune today titled, "What the Hell Happened To Darius Miles?" in which he and his former teammate and lifelong friend, Quentin Richardson, recalled some wild stories about the early 2000s when they broke into the NBA. This includes the time he almost died riding jet skis at Alonzo Mourning's house.
Miles begins by describing how he and Q went down to Miami for "Zo’s Summer Groove," a week long event hosted by Mourning, about a month after he was drafted by the Clippers out of high school in East St. Louis. He was ecstatic to be around stars like Allen Iverson, Gary Payton, Stephon Marbury and "Tommy from Martin," but things quickly went south when he came down with chicken pox.
Miles writes:
"Man, Q is running around South Beach with these boys and I’m sitting in the tub taking oatmeal baths and shit. And the worst part was that he’d come back to check on me and I’d be laid up in bed with a big-ass ice pack on my forehead, and he’d come running in the room like a little kid — like he was having the time of his life."
Like, “Bro! I was just with A.I. and them! We was in the limo! We was at the club with Wyclef, bro! It wascrazy!”
I got the thermometer in my mouth, just looking at him like, DAMN.
But the chicken pox isn't what almost killed him. After recovering, Miles says Zo invited them to take out his wave runners. That's when he almost died.
I’m like, “WaveRunners?”
Zo’s like, “WaveRunners. You know, Jet Skis.”
I’m from East Saint. I’ve never been on a Jet Ski in my life. But me and Q are like, Yo, we’re at Zo’s house. Let’s go on some WaveRunners. So we get out on the water, and we’re loving it. We’re some 18-year-old millionaires living in a rap video, right? We’re cruising around, laughing, looking for dolphins or whatever. WE LIVIN’ IT UP.
The fun came to a halt when Miles clipped the edge of a speed boat that was sitting real low in the water. He recalls how Zo warned him to look out for the red flag on the boat, but when he was "livin it up" he couldn't see shit.
Bro, the last thing I saw was that little red flag. Then I was in the air.
I hit the edge of that boat with the Jet Ski and I flipped ― I’m talking flipped that bitch. And now I’m upside down, flying through the air. And I can just see the newspapers flashing in my mind, like, NBA ROOKIE DIES IN DAMN JET SKI ACCIDENT IN SOUTH BEACH.
Of course, he survived. Although, there's much more to his story and it's definitely worth the read if you remember how entertaining that young Clippers team was.
Click here to check out his story: "What The Hell Happened To Darius Miles?"