Cheryl Miller

Cheryl Miller (born January 3, 1964, Riverside, California, U.S.) is a former basketball player who is considered one of the greatest in the history of the women’s game. Miller is credited with both popularizing women’s basketball and elevating it to a higher level. She later worked as a coach and commentator. In 1996 Miller made history as the first female analyst to call a nationally televised NBA game.

While growing up in southern California, Miller displayed extraordinary talent on the basketball court. She stayed close to her family by choosing to attend college at the University of Southern California (USC), where she quickly became a star. In 1983, her first season at USC, Miller burst onto the national scene by leading the Trojans to the NCAA women’s basketball championship. Although just a freshman, she was selected as the Most Outstanding Player (MOP) of the NCAA tournament because of her ability to dominate games with her all-around athleticism. In addition to having a shooting touch that made her dangerous from anywhere on the court, Miller was an intimidating defender and a dominating rebounder. In 1984 she led USC to another national title, and she was named MOP of the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year. That year she also won the first of three consecutive Naismith Awards for outstanding collegiate women’s player.

Miller followed up her two NCAA championship seasons by leading the U.S. women’s team to its first Olympic gold medal in the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Two years later she led American teams to titles at the women’s World Basketball Championship in Moscow and at the Goodwill Games, in which the United States defeated the Soviet Union to secure the gold medal.

When she graduated from USC in 1986, Miller was widely considered the best women’s basketball player in the school’s history. She earned All-America honors in each of her four seasons and was a three-time NCAA player of the year selection (1984–86). In her 128-game career, Miller established herself among the all-time NCAA leaders with 3,018 points (23.6 per game) and 1,534 rebounds (12.0 per game). At the close of her collegiate career, she was second in NCAA tournament career scoring with 333 points (20.8 per game) and first in career rebounding with 170 (10.6 per game). She was the first USC basketball player—male or female—to have her jersey number retired by the university.

Miller returned to her alma mater in 1993 as head coach of the women’s basketball team. During her two years at the helm, the Trojans compiled a 44–14 record and won the 1994 Pacific-10 conference title. In 1995 she left coaching to become a commentator, analyst, and reporter for the NBA coverage on a number of television networks.

In 1997, upon the establishment of a new women’s professional basketball league, the WNBA, Miller returned to the court as head coach and general manager of the Phoenix Mercury. She resigned from that position in 2000 and resumed her broadcasting career. In 2014, however, she became coach of Langston University in Oklahoma. Two years later she moved to California State University, Los Angeles, where she remained until 2019.

Miller’s younger brother, Reggie Miller, was an all-star shooting guard for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers from 1987 to 2005. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995 and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2010. In addition, she was in the inaugural class (1999) that was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. An annual award given to the top small forwards in women’s NCAA Division I college basketball, the Cheryl Miller Award, was introduced in 2018.