NBA prospect Brandon Miller has won this year’s SEC Player of the Year Award, just a year into his college basketball career with Alabama, despite his recent connection to a murder case.
The 20-year-old came out on top of this year’s postseason awards on Monday, which are decided by 14 head coaches. The small forward led the SEC’s scoring charts this season with 19.6 points per game.
He also guided Alabama to a first-seed finish and has already won the conference’s Freshman of the Year award, just weeks after being named in ex-teammate Darius Miles’ murder case.
In February, Tuscaloosa police testified that Miller was the individual who brought Miles the gun that was used to kill Jamae Harris, 23, though Miles’ friend, Michael Davis, is thought to be the alleged shooter.
The mother of one was fatally wounded on January 15.
Alabama’s small forward Brandon Miller, 19, won the SEC’s Player of the Year award on Monday
Miller allegedly provided the gun that was used to kill Jamae Harris, to Darius Miles (above)
Miller, who’s from Tennessee, then played against South Carolina and was taunted with chants of ‘lock him up’ during the game. It didn’t hold him back – he scored a career-high 41 points and his team won 78-76.
A game later against Arkansas, Miller was jokingly patted down by a teammate before taking the floor.
Both Miles and Davis are facing capital murder charges though Miller’s been cleared of any wrongdoing by authorities and his school.
The victim’s parents are also believed to be upset with NCAA officials, and more particularly, Alabama, for allowing Miller to play on despite his ties to allegations.
‘He took a brief pause and it didn’t stop. It’s like, OK, slap on the wrist and go play ball,’ Harris’ mother, DeCarla Cotton, told USA Today.
‘They’re worried about his career, but what about this 5-year-old boy (Harris’ son, Kaine). He’s the true victim in all this. He won’t have a mother anymore to influence his growing up and who he’s going to be.’
Miller is the first player to have won both Player and Rookie of the Year Awards since 2012, the year when the Lakers’ Anthony Davis received the honors.
Davis only played for Kentucky for one year (2011-2012).
Miller’s the first player to have won Player & Rookie of the Year since Anthony Davis in 2012
Harris, a mother to a five-year-old son, was visiting her cousin and boyfriend in Tuscaloosa when she was shot and killed last month.
‘She has a 5-year-old son that is still waiting for his mother to come home,’ DeCarla Heard, Harris’ mother, told reporters. ‘I want justice for my grandson.’
Tuscaloosa and University of Alabama police were dispatched to the Walk of Champions at Bryant Denny Stadium, the school’s football field, at 1:45am on January 15 when a shooting was reported.
It was there that police encountered Harris’ boyfriend, Cedric Johnson, who said he sped away from the shooting scene after their vehicle had been struck by gunfire. Johnson told police that he returned fire in self defense and may have hit one of the suspects, believed to be Davis.
Investigators later determined that the shooting occurred on the 400 block of Grace Street off of University Boulevard, near many bars and restaurants.
Harris’s mother, Heard, previously told AL.com that the suspects tried talking to her daughter, who told them that she had a boyfriend and wasn’t interested in their advances.
Court records obtained by AL.com state that Davis fired the deadly shots, while Miles admitted to providing Davis with the gun.
Miles was originally dropped off at the scene by Miller, who did not stay because the line at a local club, Twelve25, was too long, according to testimony at Tuesday’s hearing.
Jamea Harris, 23, of the Birmingham area was shot and killed, on January 15
Miles was originally dropped off at the scene by Miller, who did not stay because the line at a local club, Twelve25, was too long, according to testimony at Tuesday’s hearing
The initial encounter occurred after Harris, Johnson and Harris’ cousin, Asia Humphrey left the club for a bite at a nearby grill, where they ran into Davis, according to police.
Davis tried to talk to Harris, but was told by Johnson that she was not interested in him, Culpepper said, adding that it ‘got a little elevated.’
Miles then allegedly texted Miller, saying, ‘I need my joint,’ which police say is slang for a gun.
After Miller returned, Miles and Davis walked to his car before approaching the victims, according to police.
Related Post
Davis then said, ‘I told you I was going to get you,’ according to Tuesday’s testimony, and fired at least eight shots into the victims’ Jeep.
Harris was struck in her face.
Miller’s car was hit with two bullets in the subsequent gunfire exchange.
Michael Lynn Davis allegedly retrieved the gun from Miller’s vehicle
The victims fled in the Jeep to the Walk of Champions, where they encountered police. Harris was pronounced dead soon thereafter.
Police say they received a 911 call from Miles, who said his friend, Davis, had been shot.
Miles told police that he didn’t know how or where it happened.
In subsequent police interviews, Miles said he and his girlfriend picked up Davis after the shooting.
Police later told Miles that the incident was caught on a nearby surveillance camera, prompting Miles to admit that he was at the scene of the shooting.
Miles has admitted to contacting Miller to retrieve his gun, but said that Davis was the one who got it from Miller’s vehicle, according to police.
Davis claimed to be drunk and struggled to remember how the shooting took place.
Defense attorneys have suggested that Miles and Davis could have been in fear for their lives after initially seeing a gun in the victims’ vehicle.
