Brad Miller

Chicago Bulls  – No. 52
Center
Born	April 12, 1976 (1976-04-12) (age 33) Fort Wayne, Indiana
Nationality	USA
Listed height	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)
Listed weight	261 lb (118 kg)
Salary	$12,250,000
High school	East Noble, Maine Central Institute
College	Purdue
Draft	Undrafted, 1998
Pro career	1998–present
Former teams	Bini Viaggi Livorno (1998) Charlotte Hornets (1998–2000) Chicago Bulls (2000–2002) Indiana Pacers (2002–2003) Sacramento Kings (2003–2009)
Awards	2× NBA All-Star (2003–2004)

Bradley Alan Miller (born April 12, 1976 in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is an American professional basketball player at the center position for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA.

[edit] High school career

Brad Miller attended East Noble High School, located in Kendallville, Indiana. He later attended the Maine Central Institute, a private High School in Maine.

[edit] College career

[edit] Purdue

Brad Miller returned to his home state to attend Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he played under head coach Gene Keady and assistant coaches Bruce Weber and Frank Kendrick. During his Freshmen season, along with Senior Cuonzo Martin, he led the Boilermakers to a 25–7 record. Along the way, he was part of a Big Ten Conference Title and an NCAA Second Round appearance. He averaged 6.5 points and 5.4 rebounds a game.

During his Sophomore season, he helped lead Purdue, along with fellow Sophomore Chad Austin, to a three-peat conference title and a consecutive NCAA Second Round appearance. The Boilers finished the season with a 26–6 overall record. Miller averaged 9.6 points and 5.5 rebounds on the season.

His Junior season showed more progress than the prior season, averaging 14.3 points and 8.3 rebounds a game. Finishing second in the conference, Miller, along with teammate and current NBA player Brian Cardinal, helped the Boilers to a third straight NCAA Second Round finish. They beat Rhode Island in overtime, where Brad scored 31 points, grabbed eight rebounds and set a school tournament record with made/attempted free throws, going 15–21 from the line. He finished his Junior season with an 18–12 record. Throughout his Junior year, he became the only center in Purdue history to lead the team in assists.

Brad Miller had his best college season during his Senior year, helping with a 28–8 record. Averaging 17.2 points and 8.8 rebounds in his last season at Purdue, He led the Boilermakers to a Sweet Sixteen appearance and a 2nd seed overall in the NCAA Tournament. Miller set a school tournament record with 6 steals in a win against Delaware. His last collegiate game was a loss to Stanford. Near the end of the game, Brad busted his chin multiple times and kept going out on the floor. Miller's biggest game of his Senior season came against Michigan State, where he scored 30 points and pulled down 12 rebounds to force Michigan State to share their Big Ten crown.

During his career at Purdue, he became one of only four players to record 800 rebounds and the only player in school history to have 1,500 points, 800 rebounds and 250 assists.

[edit] Professional career

[edit] Charlotte Hornets

After college, because of the NBA lockout, Miller started his career at the club level in Italy playing for Bini Viaggi Livorno for three months^[1] before he was signed by the Charlotte Hornets as an undrafted free agent. He played for the Hornets for two seasons. On March 24, 1999, he had his season high 25 points, going 9–9 shooting and 7–7 from the line.

[edit] Chicago Bulls

After two seasons with the Hornets, he signed with the Chicago Bulls as a free agent. In January 2002, he was involved in an on-court altercation with center Shaquille O'Neal of the Los Angeles Lakers. After giving a hard foul on O'Neal, Miller walked away as O'Neal swung at the back of his head. Brad reacted by taking his jersey off. ^[2] Nearly doubling his playing time with the Bulls, he averaged 12.7 points a game, shooting 46 percent during the 2001–02 season.

[edit] Indiana Pacers

In February 2002, he was traded by the Bulls with Ron Mercer, Ron Artest and Kevin Ollie to the Indiana Pacers for Jalen Rose, Travis Best, Norman Richardson, and a second-round draft pick. He wrapped the 2001–02 season with a 15.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game average. During his first and only complete season with the Pacers, he made his first NBA All-Star Team during the 2002–2003 season, becoming one of the first undrafted players to be named an All-Star along with the Detroit Piston's Ben Wallace in the same year.

[edit] Sacramento Kings

During the 2003 offseason, Brad was involved in a sign-and-trade with the Sacramento Kings. He was signed to a multi-year deal by Indiana and then traded to the Kings in exchange for Scot Pollard. In the same trade, the Kings sent Hedo Turkoglu to San Antonio Spurs, San Antonio traded Danny Ferry to Indiana and Indiana traded Ron Mercer to San Antonio. While signing with the Kings, Miller stated, "I wanted to stay with Indiana but my agent said that the money I could make with Sacramento was just too good to pass up and I would never get this kind of contract again." Averaging 14.1 points and 10.3 rebounds in his first season with the Kings, he was voted to back-to-back NBA All-Star Game appearances. Also during that season, Brad scored 1,014 points.

Miller appeard in only 56 games during his second season at Sacaramento, yet averaging his career high of 15.6 points a game. In middle of the 2005–06 season, he became the first center since Sam Lacey in 1981 to record back-to-back double-doubles in both points and assists. After a career best 1,182 points scored during the season, the following 2006-07 season brought lower averages and totals of the previous five years.

Brad finished his five and a half seasons with the Kings, averaging just over 13 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists a game.

[edit] Chicago Bulls

On February 18, 2009, the Kings reached a tentative agreement to trade Miller and John Salmons to the Chicago Bulls for Drew Gooden, Andres Nocioni, and Cedric Simmons. As a veteran presence on a young team, Brad added depth in the paint with forward/center Joakim Noah to compete in the 2009 NBA Playoffs after a two-year absence of post-season play while with the Kings.^[3] On April 28, Miller received a busted lip by Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo, and missed game-decisive free-throws at the end of game five of the Eastern Conference First Round. During game six of the 7-overtime series and after receiving 7 stitches for his lip, he posted a double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds, shooting 8 for 9 from the floor. Miller averaged 10.3 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists during the seven-game series in the 2009 Playoffs. He made 5 of 7 three point field goals (71.4%) and shot 79.2 percent from the free throw line.

[edit] Olympics

Medal record
Competitor for  United States
World Championships
Bronze	1998 Greece	USA
Bronze	2006 Japan	USA

Shortly after finishing his college career, Brad joined the US national team in the 1998 FIBA World Championship. During the time of the NBA lockout, there were no players from the league on the team ^[4]. With fellow former Purdue standout, Jimmy Oliver, Miller led the USA team to the bronze medal. He played under NBA coach, Rudy Tomjanovich.

Miller was selected as a member of the U.S. squad that competed in the 2006 FIBA World Championship, where he played along with fellow NBA players, such as Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard. After much hype over the improvement of the team, the tournament ended in disappointment with a loss to Greece in the semifinal game. The team finished with the bronze medal by defeating Argentina. Despite pre-tournament assertions that the U.S. needed a good-shooting big man like Miller^[5], he rarely played in the tournament and did not log any playing time in the decisive semifinal loss. The team was coached by Duke's head coach, Mike Krzyzewski.

[edit] Career notes

Despite his size, Miller is not in the mold of a traditional center. He has only averaged double-digit rebounds once in his career and has never averaged more than 1.2 blocks per season. Preferring shooting midrange jump shots, he is a very efficient scorer and one of the top-shooting big men in the league. For his career, he has averaged 49.7% from the field and 79.4% from the free throw line. The main thing that sets him apart from other centers is his passing. In 2005–2006, he averaged 4.7 assists per game, good for 29th in the league but far above what other centers averaged (Ben Wallace was second among centers with 1.9 APG). The Princeton offense run by the Kings both allows and demands Miller to be a good passer and he is typically recognized as one of the best-passing big men in the league.^[6] Miller has also recently added a three-point shot to his game. In 2005–2006, he attempted an average of 1.1 three pointers per game and made 38.6% of them. One of the main negatives about Miller is his durability, as he has never completed a full season. On July 10, 2008, Miller was suspended by the NBA for 5 games at the beginning of the 2008–2009 season for violations of the league's substance abuse policy.

[edit] NBA career statistics

[edit] Regular season

[edit] Playoffs

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brad Miller

• Brad Miller Statistics at Basketball-Reference.com
• NBA.com Profile - Brad Miller