Brandon Miller looking ahead, NBA teams looking back

Brandon Miller is thinking about his future, but NBA teams want to know about the Alabama basketball star’s past.

The 6-foot-9 forward is projected to be the second or third player picked in the NBA Draft on Thursday night after he averaged 18.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game and earned the SEC Player of the Year Award for the 2022-23 season.

The San Antonio Spurs are expected to open the draft with 7-3 French pro star Victor Wembanyama. The Charlotte Hornets hold the No. 2 pick, and Miller and Scoot Henderson, a guard for the NBA G League’s Ignite team, are rated the next best prospects.

ESPN reported on Sunday that the Hornets were bringing back Miller and Henderson for second workouts this week. Miller followed his first workout in Charlotte with one for the Portland Trail Blazers last week. The Blazers hold the third pick in Thursday night’s draft.

Miller said where he’ll end up – Charlotte, Portland or perhaps a team involved in a trade – had been on his mind.

“I think about it a lot actually,” Miller said on Saturday in Portland, “because when you go to college, you’re kind of in control of where you go to school. But with the NBA, you’re not really in control, so you’re just kind of caught off-guard and just seeing where you’re living at in a few weeks. It’s one thing I kind of think about every day.”

But NBA team executives and coaches are doing more than evaluating Miller’s moves on the hardwood. He said they have wanted to know about his involvement in a Jan. 15 incident on the Strip in Tuscaloosa during which 23-year-old Jamea Jonae Harris was shot and killed.

“It’s still being asked about,” Miller said.

But Miller said he “can’t answer” because “it’s an ongoing situation, so I really can’t speak on it.”

Miller has not been charged in the shooting. Darius Miles, a former Alabama basketball player, and Michael “Buzz” Davis are charged with capital murder.

Davis is accused of firing the gun that killed Harris after getting the weapon from Miles. Miles had retrieved the gun from Miller’s car, where authorities say he left it after catching a ride to the Strip with his teammate following an SEC victory over LSU. The windshield of Miller’s car was struck twice in the exchange of gunfire in which Harris died.

Miles has pleaded not guilty to the charge against him.

While Miles was removed from the Alabama men’s basketball team after his arrest, Miller continued to play and led the Crimson Tide to the SEC tournament championship and two victories in the NCAA tourney.

“Brandon never touched the gun, was not involved in its exchange to Mr. Davis in any way and never knew that illegal activity involving the gun would occur,” Tuscaloosa attorney Jim Standridge wrote in a statement on behalf of Miller.

“I think it’s not about my game; it’s my character,” Miller said about his visits with NBA teams in the pre-draft process.

But when asked what he would tell Trail Blazers fans who might have concerns or be uneasy about their favorite team using the third pick in the draft on him, Miller talked about basketball.

“That I’m here to win ballgames,” Miller said. “I think one of my goals is definitely to win a championship. I won an SEC championship. I can finally say that. I have a ring under my belt. I didn’t win a state championship.”

Miller said he was “most definitely living a dream,” which he couldn’t have envisioned as he prepared to join the Crimson Tide last year.

“I grew up playing three sports, not knowing basketball would be the one,” Miller said. “I really thought baseball would be the sport for me. I pitched growing up and then you have those growth spurts, so you start not fitting all the equipment, and then basketball kind of took over in high school, so I kind of had to make a decision, a tough decision. That’s just me sitting down with my family, having long talks with them. Wind up giving up baseball and football, sadly.

“I feel like it was a great decision that I’m here today.”

The 77th NBA Draft will be held at 7 p.m. CDT Thursday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. ABC and ESPN will televise the draft, which will feature 58 selections in two rounds. (The draft is two picks shorter than usual because the Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers had to forfeit second-round selections for violating NBA tampering rules.)

Only one Alabama player has been selected in the top three in an NBA Draft. Antonio McDyess launched his 16-year NBA career as the second player picked in the 1996 draft. McDyess was chosen by the Los Angeles Clippers, a team he never played for. The Clippers traded McDyess and Randy Woods to the Denver Nuggets for Brent Barry and Rodney Rogers on draft night.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.