Brandon Miller to San Antonio? 'Spurs Ain't Picking Him', Says NBA Alum
Alabama star Brandon Miller starts his quest towards college basketball immortality as the Crimson Tide begins its NCAA March Madness run today.
A recent mock draft by Draft Express has the Spurs selecting Miller out of Alabama third overall, but his off-court concerns made NBA alum Jordan Crawford laugh at the mere suggestion that San Antonio would draft him.
“Spurs asked me in my meeting with them… what if we pick you and you go back to Detroit and you get shot? Lol spurs ain’t picking him,” Crawford tweeted.
Whether true or not, this story depicts San Antonio as insensitive to Crawford's familial circumstances in 2010 when he entered the NBA Draft.
If true, it’s understandable why Crawford would eliminate the Spurs as a fit for the controversial freshman forward.
Miller has denied allegations that he supplied former Alabama teammate Darius Miles with the gun used in the tragic capital murder case that cost 23-year-old victim Jamea Harris her life.
San Antonio players are often associated with nonexistent off-court personas. Their past two MVP-caliber players and franchise cornerstones, Kawhi Leonard and Tim Duncan have been likened to robots, so it’s unsurprising to hear that they would stray away from players like Miller, deemed troublesome off the court.
However, since Crawford’s alleged uncomfortable interaction with the Spurs staff, it’s also worth noting that the organization drafted Dejounte Murray with their first-round pick in the 2016 NBA Draft.
Murray, who would go on to become an All-Star during his San Antonio tenure, regularly expressed his gratitude to the Spurs organization for taking a chance on him when other teams dismissed him due to his traumatic childhood upbringing in South End Seattle, a neighborhood often associated with crime, which saw him first get arrested as a middle schooler.
The organization's willingness to select Murray, who’d prove to be a story of resilience, overcoming challenging circumstances filled with losses, means that should Miller be proven innocent of any involvement in Harris’ death, there’s a chance he’ll be hoisting up a black and silver jersey come draft night.
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