Dad’s murder conviction among Tech player’s challenges

Georgia Tech’s man behind the mask, point guard Moe Miller, has taken a beating this season.

He’s suffered two concussions and a broken nose, plus the indignity of losing his job.

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Johnny Crawford/jcrawford@ajc.com

Georgia Tech point guard Maurice Miller wears a plastic face guard while his nose continues to heal.

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But bruises and a lost season? Those don’t rank among Miller’s biggest tests.

Try being deaf in one ear. Miller has been since he was a child.

Try having a father convicted of murder. Miller hasn’t seen his dad in about 13 years.

So, having to wear a plastic face guard? Missing a bunch of 3-pointers? Please.

“I’ve been through so much in my life that if I can make it through what I made it through, I’m quite sure this won’t stop me,” Miller said.

‘He chose that life’

Miller hasn’t seen his father since he was 7 or 8. He can’t recall their last encounter.

In April 1996, Maurice Miller pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 15 years to life.

The family was living in Toledo, Ohio, and Miller’s parents had split up.

Maurice Miller, who had no prior record, got into a fight over drugs with a man who lived in the same apartment building in November of 1995, according to the Lucas County prosecutor’s office.

In his statement, Maurice Miller admitted hitting Larry Henderson with a hammer. Henderson died of head injuries in the beating, the coroner said.

Maurice Miller is incarcerated at the Grafton (Ohio) Correctional Institution. He’s eligible for parole in November 2010, just as his son will start his senior season.

Moe Miller speaks softly and his voice breaks when talking about his dad.

“He chose that life - there’s really no words for it,” he said. “He did the things he did.”

Monica Miller, Moe’s mom, sends his basketball clippings to her ex-husband, who was a 6-3 high school star himself.

Maurice still plays ball in prison; he hopes to play one-on-one against his son when he gets out, Monica said.

Moe looks forward to it.

“He thinks he’s still got it, but I’m not going to lose to him,” he said with a laugh.

From prison, Maurice sent his photo to Moe, who keeps it in an album in his dorm room, but he doesn’t communicate directly with his father.

“I really haven’t been able to sit down and pour my heart into what I want to say,” he said. “I kind of want to do it face to face.”

‘I had basketball’

After the sentencing, the family moved in with Monica’s uncle in Memphis. It was easy to get depressed, Miller said, and he “stayed in a shell.”

He was in a strange city, with kids who picked on him because of his bulky hearing aid. He wore the device because he contracted bacterial meningitis at birth. It’s a condition that can be fatal to infants. Miller spent two months in an ICU but the only residual effect was his hearing loss.

“They weren’t expecting him to live but he did and that’s why I call him my miracle child,” Monica Miller said.

Miller — who has “Miracle” tattooed on his right arm, “Child” on his left — stopped wearing the aid when the hearing in his right ear faded away. To compensate, he reads lips and sits near the front of classrooms.

“In school it was tough for a while,” he said. “Then I realized it was just something I had to deal with.”

Basketball became more than an outlet.

Miller lights up talking about his second home, the North Frayser Community Center gym. It was right down the street from his elementary school.

“I had basketball, that was mine, that was all I did,” he said. “We were there from 2 to about 6 or 7 every day, then we’d go back there on Saturdays.”

Miller usually had the ball in his hands. He was faster, and a better ball-handler, than the rest of the kids. He was a 10-year-old point guard playing with teenagers. AAU coach Darryl Lester noticed something else, too.

“When I met him he seemed kind of bitter, a little bit angry,” Lester said. “His mom told me about the different situations they’d been through and it gave me a better understanding.”

Playing for the Memphis Golden Eagles, Miller won an AAU national title. He immediately pulled off his jersey, twirled it around and cried.

“That was the first time I ever showed emotion about something good,” he said. “You finally did something you could brag about, something that’s worth doing.”

Lester said the AAU title did wonders for Miller’s self-esteem.

“It opened up a lot of hope,” said Lester, an assistant on that team. He started looking toward the future instead of what was going on right then.”

‘It just makes you so proud’

Miller said he wouldn’t be at Georgia Tech if it hadn’t been for people like Will Slaughter, a North Frayser volunteer who would walk him home at night and encourage him to work hard in the classroom.

“He stayed on the street behind my street, and his street was far worse,” said Slaughter, who is now a 26-year-old teaching assistant in Memphis. “I always told him, ‘You’re killing it on the court. You also need to be killing it in the classroom.’ We’ve had several other Memphis products who couldn’t make it in the classroom.”

Miller went on to win Tennessee’s Mr. Basketball award and graduate in the top 10 of his class.

“He’s made the most of some tough situations,” Tech coach Paul Hewitt said. “He played for a great high school coach and his mom and grandmom did a good job with him.”

Miller is the first in his family to attend college. He wears No. 3 at the suggestion of his mom, a cafeteria worker, to represent his two sisters, too. Miller is majoring in management and made the dean’s list one semester.

When Miller signed with Georgia Tech, kindergarten students sat in the audience. Miller spent his senior year at Raleigh-Egypt High tutoring them, he said, because some were “probably going through the same problems I had.”

“It just makes you so proud to see them progress, going from calling people names to ‘Yes sir, no sir,’ knowing their ABCs, tying up their shoes right,” said Miller, who broke into a wide grin recalling the experience. “It’s one of the best feelings I’ve had.”

‘You’ve got to deal with adversity’

Miller has been dating Trauneka Beard, a University of Memphis sophomore, since they were eighth-grade classmates. The two have a daughter, 20-month-old Ma’kayla.

Miller sees them as often as he can and looks forward to being together after college. Not having his dad around made him more determined to be there for Ma’kayla.

“That’s one thing that’s in my power,” said Miller, who will turn 21 on Sunday. “Whatever I have to do, I’ll give up anything for my daughter. I just want to be around her and for her to be happy because I know it’s hard. It’s really hard without a father figure.”

Until then, Miller will concentrate on getting his degree and helping Tech improve. After all, he can see the potential in bad situations.

“It’s been a rocky road this season,” he said. “I didn’t have these things planned and I’m quite sure nobody expected it, but it’s like life. You’ve got to deal with adversity and bounce back from it.

“I know I’m capable of a whole lot more.”