If you followed Cheryl Miller’s spectacular career as a professional women’s basketball player and caught her act as an NBA sideline reporter and eventual broadcaster, you’re probably wondering what she’s doing now.
What is she doing now? Her path after retiring:
It probably won’t surprise you all that much to learn that she’s currently the women’s basketball coach at Cal State LA, and it should be even less surprising to learn that her teams have been doing very well since she started there.
She went on to coach at USC, and from there she eventually became the GM of the Phoenix Mercury. In 1998 she led the Mercury to the WNBA Finals, but they were defeated by the Houston Comets.
As illustrious as her career was at that point, it was basically the beginning of Miller’s path to becoming a household name.
That process began when she became a sideline reporter for the NBA on TNT, where she would occasionally do point/counterpoint conversations with her brother, Reggie, who had an even more illustrious career as an NBA star for the Indiana Pacers. One of her other brothers, Darrell Miller, chose baseball as his career path and made it to the majors.
She capped off her broadcast career by becoming the first woman to call a nationally-televised NBA game in 1996, and she was both an analyst and a reporter for NBC during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Not surprisingly, the 6’2″ Miller has been feted at several levels for her achievements in women’s basketball.
How Did She Get There? A Short Recap of Her Career
When it comes to her career arc as a whole, Miller has been a genuine pioneer. She started out as a high school legend, playing for Riverside Polytechnic in SoCal for four years, and her team’s overall record during that period was an impressive 132-4.
Even more impressive was the fact that Cheryl Miller became the first player, male or female, to be named an All American by Parade magazine for every year of her illustrious career. She actually scored 105 points in a single game, and Miller got over 250 scholarship offers when she graduated from Riverside.
Miller went on to star in basketball at USC, dominating games and eventually the NCAA tournament with her impressive athleticism.
After that, she was a member of the USA national team, and she starred in the World Championships, too, until the Soviet Union finally defeated the Americans in the championship game.
She led the US to Olympic gold in 1984 in Los Angeles, and in the 90s she also led the US to gold at the inaugural version of the Goodwill Games in Moscow.
She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in Springfield in 1995, and four years later she was an inaugural member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, which was founded in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1999. In 2010, FIBA finally recognized her achievements in the international game and inducted her into the FIBA Hall of fame.
Her career was cut short by injury, but that didn’t end Miller’s involvement in high-end women’s basketball.
To get a better picture of what a personality Cheryl Miller is, watch the video below.
It would take a separate article to list all the records Miller holds, but here are a few. She scored over 3,000 points at USC, and Miler was just as good a rebounder, gathering up 1,534 during her college career.
Retired jersey number
Her jersey number, 31, has been retired, and not coincidentally that’s the same number brother Reggie wore when he starred for the Pacers.
Knee injury
There were a couple of serious potholes in Cheryl Miller’s astounding career journey, however. Many basketball experts believe that the knee injury that stole much of her athleticism prevented her from becoming women’s basketball’s answer to Michael Jordan.
Fatigue
Later, in 2000, Miller began to experience bouts of debilitating fatigue that caused her to step back from basketball while she managed her recovery. Fatigue hasn’t been an issue since then, though, and her recent track record as a coach suggests a full recovery and then some.
Time as a college coach
Miller seems to be enjoying her time as a college coach at Cal State, and she’s stayed close to home for most of her professional career as a baller.
No one would be surprised if she started to rise up the college coaching ranks or even break boundaries in the NBA, for few things seem beyond the reach of Cheryl Miller when it comes to basketball achievements.
