![]() ![]() He was also responsible for the first time Diamond felt uncomfortable as a basketball player. “He sees things from a different perspective, now that he’s not playing.” “He’s my dad, he’s my coach, and he’s also a mentor when it comes to the game,” Diamond says. There was a time when she wasn’t so receptive to his input, but now she soaks it all in. ![]() After numerous shooting sessions with her kids, Dreana has developed into a skilled rebounder.īut when it comes to basketball advice, Diamond goes to her dad. All three of her daughters played in college, and her youngest son, Landen, plays for his high school team. Whether she did or didn’t doesn’t matter. Despite aunts, uncles and grandparents all denying Dreana’s basketball background, their mother maintains that she played in high school. ![]() The only person in the Miller family who didn’t play the sport is their mother, Dreana - though that is a running joke with the Miller sisters. The socks didn’t last long, but basketball was never going away. “They were up to my knees,” Diamond says with a laugh, her cheeks perking up to reveal two pronounced dimples. One was blue and the other yellow, to match their team colors. Diamond and LaNiya thought they would start a new trend when they accessorized their jersey and shorts with tall, tie-dye socks. Wanting to follow in her oldest sister’s footsteps, Diamond adopted the same short shorts that Adreana sported but added her own twist to the uniform. She and the third Miller sister, LaNiya, spent countless hours on the sidelines, waiting for their turns. Her father, Lance, had been a standout player at Villanova - the school that later gave Diamond her first scholarship offer in eighth grade - and when Adreana was old enough, Lance set up an AAU program.įrom then on, it was a waiting game for Diamond. The basketball bubble she had grown accustomed to was changing.įor the first time in a long time, Diamond Miller’s future was uncertain.īy the time Diamond was old enough to play organized basketball, she had already been waiting years to put on a uniform. She didn’t even know if she would be wearing a Maryland jersey this season.Ī knee injury that nagged her throughout her junior year needed surgery, and when the 2021-22 season came to a close, she found out her teammates and best friends at Maryland, Angel Reese and Ashley Owusu, would be leaving the program. She didn’t know if she would be in a position to hit buzzer-beaters. Just nine months earlier, there were no forgone conclusions in Diamond’s life. 5N7wkiPppf- Just Women’s Sports December 2, 2022 The moment was quintessential Diamond Miller. But when Diamond put her finger to her lips, shushing the crowd, she couldn’t help but smile. So, Adreana didn’t even celebrate when the shot fell through the net, lifting Maryland to a 74-72 win over then-No. The outcome, she believed, was a forgone conclusion. Shooting off the bounce from the elbow is Diamond’s “bread and butter.” The one-footed jumper might as well have been a layup, Adreana said. She’d been the victim of Diamond’s dagger-like shooting in countless games of one-on-one, where she’d look over her shoulder to see her younger sister burying that same shot. Her younger sister had already put up 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the game, and when she saw the move Diamond was executing, it felt like it was happening in slow motion.Īdreana had seen it before. Sitting on a couch in her family’s home in New Jersey, Adreana Miller didn’t flinch. When Diamond Miller crossed up Notre Dame’s Kylee Watson with two seconds left on the clock of a tie game on Dec. ![]()
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