‘Big or’ loved Arkansas fans, Barkley obtained praise

I met with Oliver Miller in Denver, 14 years after he helped take Arkansas to the 1990 Final Four in Mile High City.

Known affectionately during his time in Fayetteville as the “Big or”, it was the last season of Miller’s NBA when he approached at the end of a 12 -year professional career.

He was blessed with immense talent and personality to match, perhaps the biggest character in the history of the Arkansas basketball program.

He will always be remembered as a member of the 1990 Final Four Trained by Nolan Richardson, which is among the best in the history of Hogs Hoops.

Miller died of cancer on March 12 at an old age of 54. He had two children, a daughter, and, according to the reports, he spent time with his grandchildren and helped in the basketball camps.

A talented player was the presence of low 6 -foot pole 9 inches from Arkansas for four years, an efficient scorer and a great pin with excellent vision and time in court.

In the last 55 years, no Razorke compares with Miller when it came to exit passes after a defensive rebound. They were fast, long, like a bullet and lit the fast rest that allowed the Hogs to establish the score record of the school of 99.6 points per game in the 1990-91 season.

That Miller trio, Lee Mayberry and Todd Day brought the teams to the two highest score averages in the history of Arkansas, and four of the best five. The 1994 National Championship team occupies third place with 93.4 per game.

I spoke a lot with Miller during his four years with the pigs, and I found him fun, sometimes sarcastic and always insightful.

When we visited for 20 minutes or so in 2004, I was writing a story. He was in the middle of 48 games with the Minnesota Timberwolves, his last chance in the NBA.

He had had an interesting trip around the world the previous three years, playing basketball in Greece, Poland, Italy and China. As expected, it was more mature, humble, introspective, but still blinking that lighter side.

In nine seasons of the NBA, Miller averaged 7.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.5 shots blocked in
23 minutes in 493 career games, 196 as a starter. Always efficient, fired 53% in the NBA.

His best season was 1995-96 with the Toronto Raptors. He recorded 76 games race, 72 openings, 12.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.9 blocks.

He had been recruited in 1992 by the Phoenix Suns with his selection number 1, 22 in general. His pork teammates were snatched by the Milwaukee Bucks, the day with the eighth selection and Mayberry a place behind Miller. They are shown here, from left to right, day, Miller, Mayberry:

Miller was included in the Hall of Fame of the Southwest Conference. Together with Day and Mayberry, he took Arkansas to three consecutive SWC titles and a SEC crown. His four-year record was 115-24.

From Fort Worth, Miller was immensely popular among Arkansas fans. I remember that he was surrounded by children crying out of autographs in the SWC tournament in the Dallas meeting sand.

As a player, it was generally the third option to annotate the Hogs behind Day and Mayberry. He had great hands, a soft shooting touch, a high intellectual coefficient of rings, and was one of the best big men who pass in the history of basketball.

His SunS teammate, the NBA legend and the member of the Naismith Hall of Fame, Charles Barkley, was the most valuable player in the League in the first professional season of Miller. The Suns arrived at the NBA finals, losing to the Chicago Bulls of Michael Jordan.

Barkley remembered his teammate with love and sadness in Inside the NBA. His comments about Miller begin at the 5:20 brand. He also spoke brilliantly about Junior Bridgeman, who died one day before Big O.

“A child so little, big child,” said Barkley, who is 62 years old. “It has been a difficult week for the NBA family.

“But Oliver, man, was a great child. We would not have reached the final without Oliver Miller. We would not have come there.

“He was an excellent pin, he had these strange long arms: he played larger than his size. But he was a great child and man, 53-54 years that is too young to die.”

I saw the Bridgeman of 6 feet 5 years before he was a Milwaukee Bucks star. Incredibly, he was not the best player of his high school team, the undefeated group of the East Chicago Washington Washington who was judged better in the history of Indiana rica in tradition.

A teammate was the 6 -foot and 6 -inch guard Pete Trgovich, who played for the legendary coach John Wooden in UCLA. Another was the 6 -foot and 8 power striker, Tim Stoddard, who began with David Thompson in North Carolina and defeated UCLA for the 1974 National Championship. Stoddard launched 13 seasons in the major leagues.

In the ’75, Bridgeman’s Louisville team lost in the last four against the UCLA de Trgovich team. The Bruins then won their incredible tenth national championship in 12 years by beating Kentucky in the final, the last game of Wooden’s career.

15 years passed, therefore, when Miller and the Razorkes limited a 30-5 season with their 97-83 defeat against Duke in the now missing McNichols Arena de Denver.

Big or helped pigs dominate the southwest conference. There were 42-6 in the last three seasons of the school at the SWC, then they moved to the Southeast Conference in 1992 and were champions with a record of 13-3.

Miller fought against weight problems and foot problems in his last years in Arkansas. Then he was listed, perhaps generously, with 280 pounds. He was well above that during his career in the NBA.

Miller was not a saint, but he was known as a good teammate and a pleasant character. Rest in peace.

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