“Physical and Mental Crash”: Where Did Quincy Miller Go?

Quincy Miller was the icing on the cake in what was supposed to be Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Galacticos season in 2017. After David Federman’s promise to add 12 Euroleague players, Belgrade’s most dominant player, who was also selected for the Euroleague top five this season, landed in the arena and was to lead. Maccabi Tel Aviv together with Sony Wiems. At the press conference, Miller’s humor and smiles could not be missed, but shortly afterwards his personal professional tragedy occurred, which gave the signal for what would happen later in the Yellows’ nightmarish season.

3 years have passed since then and Quincy Miller just can’t seem to recover: he was cut from Bamberg after one appearance, parted
From Pirates de Quardilas the Puerto Rican and Juventud in Daluna without playing, and reached the semi-professional league in Taiwan, where he was also released. Now, Miller realized that lower he could no longer go down, and began a journey back up. A glimpse into a story that began as a physical crash, and very quickly became a mental crash, with these days the last attempt being made to mend the rifts.

The collapse began from the moment of the injury at Maccabi Tel Aviv
Miller was presented at a celebratory press conference full of smiles, but even before he arrived in the country, he was injured in an amateur game at UCLA University, tearing his cruciate ligament and lateral ligament, an injury that apparently ruined his NBA dream. Maccabi Tel Aviv considered releasing him, but in the end it was decided to open his contract and introduce an option for both sides to separate at the end of the season.

Although the American returned to play at the beginning of January of that year, he did not really manage to recover from the injury and return to being the star that Maccabi wanted him to be. He has only been involved in four Euroleague games, in which he failed to impress with an average of 7 points per game and the team was eliminated earlier than expected. Things did not work out in the league either and Maccabi was eliminated in the playoff semifinals and experienced one of the worst seasons in its history. If the lack of professional produce was not enough, Miller was caught smuggling his girlfriend to the team’s closed training camp in Ein Gedi, which was another trigger for the team’s decision to take the option to withdraw from the contract at the end of the season and release him.

“I’m not injured”
Miller’s next stop was the then German champion – Bamberg. “We have Andrea Trinkieri, one of the best coaches in Europe,” Miller said at the signing, “he is meticulous and a basketball expert – something I need from time to time, someone to kick my ass.” The American tried to open a new page with the Germans, but even in this case the beginning did not go as smoothly as he expected.

Already in the team’s pre-season games, rumors of a separation of powers began and Miller’s name was again associated with the Red Star Belgrade. But Trinkieri knew what the potential was, which lay in the hands of the forward and decided to give him another chance in the opening game of the German league. Despite this, Miller again did not impress and scored only 4 points in 22 minutes on the floor, in a game that was his only official game in the Bamberg uniform.

Miller’s alienation from his group began to increase as time went on. The American forward, who came to Bamberg as the main attraction, no longer wanted to train with his teammates and had to maintain playing ability on his own. The climax came precisely after the Germans’ debut victory in the Euroleague over Malaga, a game in which Miller no longer wore. Team members and players were surprised to find out that Miller decided to leave the group WhatsApp while preparing to board the plane, which marked the end for Miller and caused Trinkieri to give it up for good.

The conduct of the team in front of the talented player caused a lot of eyebrows to be raised and as a result a series of rumors began that the player was still injured, which he was quick to deny. “I am not injured, but only healthy and hungry,” he responded balconically. Later, Rolf Beyer, the team general manager, explained that the reason for the breakup was a professional decision by the coach who wanted in this position a player with a different character of play, one who prefers to play more in the color area and less off the arc.

Released from two teams without playing, he reached the semi-professional league in Taiwan
From that moment on, Miller left European basketball and traveled to Puerto Rico for the Pirates de Quadrilles. Although it is a relatively comfortable league, Miller was released after less than a month when the season has not yet opened, for professional reasons, according to the team. He then signed for Juventud in Daluna, who later found out he was injured, then released him without making a debut.

So what do you do after two years without real basketball? Moving to Taiwan. Miller came to Twian, a semi-professional group in the East, with the goal of getting back on track, and there too he arrived as the main attraction. The debut was impressive with 26 points and 14 rebounds, with the coach already fantasizing about a championship. At the same time, the capacity soon waned and he was released.

“We expected someone called ‘Little Durant’ to show us NBA abilities, but it did not happen,” the local media wrote, “His contribution was minimal. He was soft and barely moved on the floor. His offensive ability was only in shooting, but other than that, no “We saw no element of the game from him. He didn’t even try to take rebounds. He felt he was not making an effort, and that’s why he was cut.”

His release statement read: “Miller was cut because he had difficulty adjusting to the league and the physical standards set by the referees.” Recall, a semi-professional league in Taiwan.

Training with Damar Drusen, dreaming of a comeback
So after being released last year from his team in Taiwan, Miller took a few months for himself, until he decided he wanted to go back to being the Quincy he knew. He returned to the U.S. and began individual and group training with Jason Coleman, a personal trainer who also accompanies Damar Druzen.

“He’s very focused and wants to get back to being the player he was,” Coleman told the sports channel. “I worked with him all summer. After a long time, he was one hundred percent focused on his career. “It’s not just training on the floor. Now you can say with all your heart that the love for basketball has returned to him.”

“He worked in Las Vegas with Damar Drusen, Rudy Gay and Pierre Jackson. The training was intense and he came back to himself,” Coleman concluded. “Quincy understands that everyone thinks he can no longer be himself, but in his situation today, any team that takes him will benefit the player he was. One of the best in Europe three years ago. “