After weeks of flunking Public Relations 101, Alabama men’s basketball tried to improve its grade Wednesday. Let’s charitably give the Crimson Tide an incomplete on this one. Their attempt to slink through a crisis of their own making is far from over.
Star player Brandon Miller emerged in front of the media for the first time since America’s perception of him—and this entire program—shifted on Feb. 21, when a Tuscaloosa detective in a pre-trial hearing disclosed that the star player had some involvement in an alleged January murder in town. Miller has not been charged with any crime.
In his first public media appearance since the allegations surfaced, Miller was at the podium for an on-campus press conference before the team departed for the Southeastern Conference tournament. His appearance was not advertised beforehand by Alabama. However, close readers of the Tuesday email announcing this media availability could see it coming.
Recent press-conference emails had noted that no players would be available, and that line was missing this time around. As we’ve learned in recent weeks in Alabama, what’s not said is often as important as what is said.
So Miller spoke, saying little in response to largely servile and at times embarrassing questioning. It was unlikely that the SEC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year would have said anything substantial under any circumstance—that would be legally risky, at least—but there was little that directly related to why there is a controversy looming over the Tide.
This was the only comment from Miller that addressed anything other than basketball: “I never lose sight of the fact that a family has lost one of their loved ones that night. This whole situation is just really heartbreaking. But respectfully, that’s all I’m going to be able to say on that.”
The most pertinent question to Miller: “Just in the past month or so, there’s been criticism of the fact that you haven’t sat out any games. How would you respond to that?”
The answer: “I just lean on my teammates. We just go places to get wins.”
Getting wins has, indeed, been the entire focus despite February’s bombshell testimony.
The detective said Miller drove the alleged murder weapon, which belonged to then-teammate Darius Miles, at Miles’s request to the scene of the crime in the early hours of Jan. 15. Miles allegedly provided his gun to friend and trigger man Michael Davis.
Jamea Jonae Harris, a 23-year-old mother, was killed in a wild shootout that ensued, and both Davis and Miles have been charged with capital murder. Miller has cooperated with police during the investigation. So has teammate Jaden Bradley, who also was at the scene of the alleged crime.
Miller’s attorney, Jim Standridge, issued a statement Feb. 22 that said his client was already on his way to pick up Miles outside a bar and did not know that an altercation had occurred involving Miles, Davis and people who were with Harris. Thus, Standridge said, Miller did not know that Miles’s request for his gun would lead to a shootout.
Alabama declined to disclose the presence of two other players at the shootout beyond Miles, who was dismissed from school and the basketball team. It also declined to discipline either Miller or Bradley, despite what were—at minimum—egregious errors in judgment during a tragic situation. With championships to chase, it was full speed ahead.
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The school blundered forward with a level of tone-deaf incompetence that called into question everyone’s leadership—none more so than coach Nate Oats. The day after Miles was charged with murder, Oats disclosed that he had strangely sought the counsel of former NFL star Ray Lewis, apparently about handling an inconvenient death. On the day of the testimony linking Miller to the crime scene and alleged murder weapon, Oats dismissed his star player’s presence as “wrong spot at the wrong time.” And when Miller continued for weeks after the alleged murder with a frankly offensive pregame introduction “patdown” routine, Oats was completely oblivious.
The missing voice during the past couple of weeks has been Miller’s. Alabama realized the strategy of hiding him from the media had an expiration date—he would need to be available at the SEC tournament, and the NCAA tournament that follows. Wednesday’s five-minute session was a soft launch in front of a small and largely pliable media contingent on home turf, with a few answers that came across as carefully scripted.
With Oats flanked by Miller and SEC Sixth Man of the Year Jahvon Quinerly, this was a milk run. Words that were never spoken at any point: murder, gun, police, investigation, Darius Miles. Instead, this was a rhetorical tap-dance with allusions to “the situation” and “the last few weeks.”
The first question to Miller was about being a finalist for the Julius Erving Award, given to the nation’s top small forward. (Yes, really.) A later question directed to Quinerly was about “the team’s message to Brandon … to help him through this time.”
Quinerly’s response: “We stayed together as a team and made sure he was good.”
There was a question for both players about the effect of “national attention on this program” and “chants toward you and toward the team” during road games. Miller: “We hear the chants. We just really lean on each other to go to places like that to pull out tough wins.”
There were a couple of questions—one to Miller and one to Oats about the “mental fortitude” required to be able “to focus on the game of basketball.”
Miller’s answer: “Um, respectfully, can’t really say more on that.”
Oats took that opportunity to laud his team’s culture, wading into some deeper water without floaties on his arms: “You go through the season and face adversity—whether it’s losses or off-court adversity—and you find out how much you really do care for each other, love each other. Your culture gets tested a little bit, and I think our guys have responded well. They’ve really leaned into each other, love each other. Myself, I lean on my faith a lot, spend a little more time on the scriptures praying for wisdom.
“It’s been a very tough situation. What Brandon said, it’s been heartbreaking on all accounts. There’s things that are a lot bigger in life than basketball, but at the same time my job is to lead these young men and they’ve needed a lot of leading this year. I don’t think God puts you through anything more than you can handle. That’s where my thoughts have turned in the last few weeks.”
Oats on Miller: “He’s taking this whole situation very seriously from Day 1. It’s a tough situation for all of us. It’s just sad, to be honest with you. I never thought Brandon was flippant with any of it, ever. As far as off the court goes, there’s not necessarily huge changes, but I didn’t think there needed to be big changes. We’re all going through a tough situation together and trying to lean on each other.”
Thus ended the non-basketball portion of Alabama’s March media milk run. Upon arrival in Nashville, the team can attempt a “we’ve addressed it” stance and swat away questions if it so chooses.
But the Crimson Tide will have to stick to their talking points for the next couple of weeks, at least. Maybe a full month. Because the program’s involvement in—and response to—the alleged murder of Jamea Jonae Harris is a topic that isn’t going away.
