If you’re lucky enough to be at the Cleveland Clinic Courts when the Cavs wrap up practice, you’ll sometimes get to see them cut loose by throwing a football around the gym.
The thing is: they ALL have good arms and good hands. Great athletes are great athletes. (The international guys like Andy and Delly don’t even mess with that stupid pigskin, but Cavaliers High Performance Director, Alex Moore – also a native Australian – can punt the ball, Australian Rules Football-style, as accurately as a perfect pass.)
Watching Mike Miller chuck the pumpkin, he could easily pass for an NFL veteran, floating an out-pattern into the outstretched hands of a smiling Kyrie Irving.
Like most of the guys in our Growing Up … series, Miller was a multi-sport athlete on his way up. But basketball took over early and his path led him from Mitchell, South Dakota to the University of Florida to a decade-and-a-half of incredible NBA success.
Over the course of his 14-year career, Miller ranks among the NBA’s all-time top 20 in career three-point percentage (.409) and made three-pointers (1,531). He’s canned at least 70 threes in 12 of his 14 seasons and at least 100 in eight of those years. Miller – who was named Rookie of the Year in 2000-01 and the league’s top Sixth Man in 2005-06 – has shot at least 40 percent from long-distance in nine different NBA seasons, including last year when he finished second in the league at .459.
As the veteran works his way back into action, he took a minute to start over in Mitchell …
Mitchell, South Dakota is … awesome. It’s God’s country. It’s a town of 15,000, everybody knows everybody.
It’s a great place … to live; a great place to grow up. The Corn Palace is fantastic. Basketball is passionate.
It was like the movie … “Hoosiers.” I grew up playing with 4,000-5,000 people at games. So it made playing in college a little easier.
I come from … a very athletic family. Both my brothers – Ryan and Jared – played. My sister played. They all played college. My sister played college volleyball.
My oldest brother, Ryan … played professionally in Australia for a couple years. My Dad played, my uncles. Everybody played.
Growing up, I also played … football and baseball. I stopped playing football around ninth grade, into sophomore year. I was a quarterback. I kept playing baseball – I was a pitcher – until 10th or 11th grade.
But basketball just started … taking up my time, and that’s when traveling and AAU became big, so summers were full.
I started thinking … I could play at the next level when I started traveling.
When I was coming up … the AAU circuit was out, but it wasn’t like it is now. There weren’t all the blogs and the media. So they didn’t have a lot of rankings and things like that.
When I traveled to play in those tournaments … and was pretty successful, I knew I had a chance to at least play Division I, which was my dream at that time.
I had a gradual … growth spurt. For me, I was lucky. I was always tall for my age
But my dad was the coach … of our travel teams, and I always played on my older brother’s teams at two or four years younger. So I had to play point guard. In my class, I was the biggest kid. But with them, I was one of the smallest.
Doing that just … really hones your skills and builds your foundation. So when I started playing with guys my age, I was still the tallest one, but at the lead guard position. So that really helped me.
I’ve been so fortunate … to have great coaches coming up. My high school coach was great. Billy (Donovan) was awesome. I played for Doc Rivers my first year in the league. I’ve played for Hubie Brown, Mike Fratello.
I’ve played for awesome coaches … and it’s been a blessing, because you take something from every one of them. And hopefully you sponge it up and bring it to other people.
I’m not sure I do remember … my first dunk. I think it was in practice when I was in ninth grade. It was a big deal for me. But I don’t dunk anymore, so I don’t even remember the last one!
But, honestly I think it was … during my sophomore year in high school and I was playing varsity.
I guarantee It was just … a regular dunk – nothing fancy. My coach was an old-school coach. So you had to have a set of cajones just to go up and try a dunk. Because if you missed – that was a wrap.