FEATURE STORY — September/October 2007

It’s Miller Time

After becoming one of the greatest basketball players in UIC history, Mark Miller moved to Europe and turned into an international superstar. Can he do it again?

By Rachel Parker
Photography By Lloyd Degrane

Mark Miller ’98 AHS is nowhere to be found. At this moment, he’s supposed to be available for an interview in the office of UIC’s Student Recreation Facility, but none of his colleagues have seen him lately. “He tends to wander,” explains a brown-haired student at the front desk. An SRF employee gets up from his chair to find him.

Moments later, Miller appears on the second floor balcony in a sleeveless t-shirt and cotton shorts. He jogs down the stairs, his face glistening with sweat, and offers an indifferent handshake. “He was playing basketball,” says his coworker. Miller doesn’t look happy.

It’s clear that this 31-year-old, who serves as SRF building coordinator, would rather be shooting hoops than chatting right now. But that’s a welcome change from six years ago: At that time, and throughout his youth, Miller says he didn’t like playing basketball. He also didn’t think he was very good at the sport—a surprising admission from someone who was ranked in the top 50 nationally as a basketball player at Westinghouse High School; helped lead the UIC Flames to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 1997-98; was recruited post-college to play for basketball teams in six European countries; and holds titles such as Best American in Croatia (1998), Slam-Dunk Champion (1999 and 2000) and German League Player of the Year (2000). Miller also ranks 8th on UIC’s all-time scoring list with 1,458 career points and was named to the UIC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003.

Without basketball, I wouldn’t have gone to college. I know that”

It wasn’t until Miller had to quit the sport because of a torn hamstring and broken thumb that he “realized how much basketball [guided] my life,” he says. “Now I’m up here playing every day. I’m having fun.” Miller’s having so much fun, in fact, that he’s trying to join a French, Italian or German team this fall and play professionally for another four years. To prepare for the move, he has put himself on a rigorous training program that includes playing basketball three to four hours a day, six days a week.

The eldest of four children, Miller grew up on 15th and Loomis in a public housing project on Chicago’s Near West Side. His cousin, Antoine, taught him how to play basketball when he was 10 and then pushed him to compete against other kids in the neighborhood for quarters. As Miller grew older, some of the local gang members noticed his athletic talent and encouraged him to stay away from their group. “They [told] me, ‘You keep playing ball,’” he says.

Miller hasn’t forgotten that experience. Today, he reaches out to kids from his neighborhood and “tries to lead by example,” he says. “I tell them [you shouldn’t] do wrong in life. It pays off when you do right.” In July, Miller also hosted the first annual Mark Miller Basketball Camp for 8- to 18-year-olds at SRF, where he encouraged players to make school a priority and realize that basketball “won’t take you through life,” he adds.

Still, Miller doesn’t underestimate what playing ball did for him. “Without basketball, I wouldn’t have gone to college,” he says. “I know that. [I would have been] dead, in jail or selling drugs.”