CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The introductory press conference was wrapping up and all the attendees were preparing to go their separate ways when Mitch Kupchak took one more turn on the microphone.
Pointing out the families of Brandon Miller and Nick Smith Jr., the Charlotte Hornets’ pair of first-round picks in Thursday night’s NBA Draft, Kupchak looked over at Miller’s father and noticed there wasn’t much of a deviation from his earlier mood.
“Darrell, you’ve had that smile on your face since I saw you this morning,” Kupchak, Charlotte’s team president/GM, said up on the dais. “Thank you for allowing your son to play with us.”
It’s hard to wipe the smirk off Darrell Miller these days. His son’s arrival in town as the second overall pick is the latest step in a rapid journey to the pro ranks. The ascension of Brandon Miller, a 6-foot-9, 200-pound wing, is nearly quicker than release on his silky smooth jump shot.
He’s gone from a prep standout in Tennessee to star at the University of Alabama to the person drafted directly after French wunderkind Victor Wembanyama. All despite Miller, 20, only turning his full attention to strictly basketball for less than a handful of years.
“He grew up playing three sports, so we were always busy,” Darrell Miller told The Observer. “He was a baseball player and I loved watching him pitch, (was) the quarterback so I loved watching him throw. I actually thought he was going to be a baseball player up until high school.
“And that’s when he made a decision to focus on basketball. And I think it was because basketball kind of chose him, you know?”
Brandon Miller had a serious growth spurt. The kind that feels akin to waking up one day and thinking you were in a slumber deep and long enough to make Rip Van Winkle jealous. Miller’s stature kept increasing, simultaneously happening while he played for St. Louis-based Brad Beal Elite, a premier AAU program.
Being involved in the AAU circuit isn’t cheap. It’s an investment that takes commitment and serious dedication from the athlete as well as the parents due to the grueling schedule and travel. So, before going all in, Darrell Miller wanted to make sure Brandon understood what he was getting into and the road that lay ahead.
“I talked to him about it,” Darrell said, “and he was like, ‘Yeah, I think I’m just going to stick to basketball — although he still tried to go out there and play football. Which is funny because the head coach is one of my friends who’s from Memphis. And they consider Memphis a big basketball city.
“He was like, ‘I know basketball. Brandon’s not coming out here anymore.’ So, I think Brandon may have came out there for three days, but he never let him get in the practice or anything. And then Brandon got the hint and stuck to basketball.”
In a weird twist of fate, Smith, Brandon Miller’s AAU backcourt teammate, was seated directly next to him on the podium inside the Spectrum Center’s grand entrance Friday afternoon. Smith, widely regarded as the top recruit in his high school class prior to his one year at Arkansas, got picked 27th by the Hornets and is thrilled about being reunited with one of his closest friends.
There’s a Hollywood-esque theme going on for the duo.
“People here think it’s normal, but to us it’s kind of crazy,” Smith said. “Just having the opportunity and not playing with him in college, I feel like we made the right decision for both of us — for him to go to Alabama and I went to Arkansas. I feel like it was a good decision for both of us.
“We learned a lot and for us to be on the same team in the league, hopefully we can win a lot of games and make a lot of noise and win a lot of championships here. It’s just a different feeling.”
Uneasy times at Alabama
Miller is months removed from a stellar freshman campaign with Alabama, where he amassed first-team All-America honors. Becoming the first player to collect the Southeastern Conference player of the year, freshman of the year and tournament most valuable player awards in the same season, Miller’s versatility propelled him up the draft boards and vaulted him into the conversation among the draft’s best prospects.
Still, many remember Miller for something unassociated with his basketball talents.
In January, Miller was at the scene of a shooting in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, that left a single mother, Jamea Harris, dead. Police say the gun used to shoot and kill Harris was brought to the scene by Miller.
He has not been charged in connection with the homicide, but his former Crimson Tide teammate Darius Miles and another man are facing capital murder charges in the case.
The situation has hovered over Miller since, leading to scrutiny from all angles. At the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago last month, the Hornets met with Miller, grilling him about the incident. They knew then he was their top choice, and Charlotte’s brass went into full research mode.
Kupchak, along with vice president of basketball operations/assistant GM Buzz Peterson, made a trek to Alabama earlier this month to become even more assured about Miller’s character, and Kupchak insists they are satisfied with everything they saw and heard.
“With a pick this high and this valuable, we do a lot of background work and do a lot of due diligence,” he said after the draft. “We contact a lot of people. … Over the course of the year, we do a good job of investigation, whether it’s reading the newspaper or going to games. You talk to people and you bump into people.
“We’re comfortable going with Brandon Miller on and off the court.”
The Millers are grateful to hear those words and thankful Brandon is now in the NBA. With Brandon’s new home finally known after weeks of uncertainty, his parents plan on moving to Charlotte soon to aid in the transition, something that wasn’t a given earlier this year with the controversy swirling around him and the ramifications it caused.
“That’s the biggest lesson to learn,” Darrell Miller said. “You just have to be a lot more careful who you choose as a friend, who you choose to run with. Because (Miles) was a basketball player and normally basketball players run with their teammates and other basketball players.
“You don’t know. You just don’t know.”
Amid Brandon playing with skepticism and criticism in a nationally publicized story, he was unaware of something, a burden his parents didn’t add to an already stressful situation. Yolanda, his mother, learned she had breast cancer.
“That diagnosis is just never a good time to have,” Yolanda said. “It caught us where it was in between seasons and in between the media and the controversy in Alabama, and we just wanted him to stay focused. We got through it as a family, just trying not to let him know about it until he needed to know about it.
“And, of course, like any child he’s going to have questions. It was a tough battle. It was a tough battle. I’m glad it’s over. We’ve moved on now. I’m healthy and cancer free and just excited every day.”
It’s an incredible blessing that arrived for the Millers just as Brandon is preparing to dig into his new gig with the Hornets. The road to get here was littered with speed bumps and potholes Yolanda carefully had to maneuver around to fulfill her dream of seeing Brandon play en route to arriving at this current juncture.
Going to his outings — and all their children’s contests over the years for that matter — meant that much.
“I can remember purposely scheduling my surgeries, ‘OK, in two days will I be able to walk?’” Yolanda said. “If I can walk in two days, I’m going to be at that game. And that’s how we did it and he never knew.”
That also kind of describes the other side of Brandon, the part of him that the majority of people he briefly comes into contact with are unaware of. There’s much more to Miller than meets the eye, more than the persona he shows the public.
‘This was before NIL and he didn’t have a job yet’
Three instances in particular rapidly come to the minds of his parents, who marveled at the benevolence of their youngest child and his willingness to be there for people in dire need of a pick-me-up.
“He’s always volunteered,” Darrell said. “He was a kid in college but he sponsored a family for Christmas. And he didn’t want to be in a photo shoot or anything just because he doesn’t do things for anyone else to say, ‘That’s a good kid.’ He just does it because that’s what he does.”
Yolanda swells with pride from her son’s generosity.
“He’s always doing things behind the scenes to help people without wanting recognition,” Yolanda said, “or without wanting to show that ‘I did this or I did that.’ I can remember when he was younger and he was just driving. There’s always a homeless person on the corner and he would give them all his money. And I was like, ‘Can we give him some chips?’
Darrell nods in agreement.
“Yeah, we had to stop him,” Darrell said. “So, when we stopped him from giving money, we started giving him food.
“This was before NIL and he didn’t have a job yet. And he’s just passing out money.”
Yolanda blushes thinking about it to this day.
“I’m like, ‘A whole 20 bucks?’ ” she said.
That’s when Yolanda quickly remembers when Brandon quietly wanted to help prevent a student at their high school from being bullied. Brandon probably would have done it himself, but there was a slight problem given his wiry frame.
“There was a young kid at Cane Ridge and people were making fun of what he had on,” Yolanda said. “So, he was like, ‘Can we just find some stuff around the house his size and I’ll take it to him and I’ll make sure he gets it?’
“And that was just sweet. So, he’s always just that kid that is going to secretly do some stuff that will blow people’s minds if they knew it.”
For Brandon, getting drafted by the Hornets is a validation of the countless practice hours Darrell said his son put in. He points to those lonely days during the COVID pandemic when school was taught online and Brandon got permission to go shoot in the gym, turning it into a regimen until things started returning closer to normal and restrictions were eased.
Once that routine became the norm, Brandon never looked back.
“I think that’s just what catapulted him up to where he is now, that hard work is still in him,” Darrell said. “It’s been exciting and I could be a little biased, but I’m one of his biggest fans. I love watching him play ball, plus it’s one of the things that it just seems like it’s natural to him.
“The plays that he makes, the decisions that he makes, it’s just one of those things that I love to watch.”
