What does an athlete have to do to get suspended by the Southeastern Conference? Apparently, supplying the murder weapon to a murderer is perfectly acceptable behavior.
On Tuesday, an officer from the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit testified in court that Alabama basketball player Darius Miles texted teammate Brandon Miller sometime after midnight on Jan. 15, asking him to bring his gun to a restaurant where a third man then used that gun to shoot and kill a single mother.
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Miller has not been charged in the murder case. He scored a record high 41 points Wednesday night against South Carolina.
On that late Saturday night, Miller drove Miles and the killer to a nightclub in Tuscaloosa. Miller did not want to wait in line so he drove off while Miles and the killer went inside.
Miles, the killer, the victim, and the victim’s boyfriend then left the club to go to a nearby restaurant to eat. Miles and the killer wanted to talk to the victim, but the victim did not want to talk to them and her boyfriend told Miles and the killer to go away.
At that point, one of the men said, “You don’t know who I am, you don’t know what I do, I smack people.”
Miles texted Miller, “I need my joint,” which the officer said Miller knew was a reference to Miles’s gun that was in Miller’s car. Miles also told Miller that someone was “fakin” which, according to Alabama.com’s Carol Robinson, means someone was “making threats without the means to back it up.”
Miller then drove his car to the restaurant where the victim, Miles, and the killer were. When Miller stopped his car, the officer testified it was blocking the victim’s car from escaping. Miles then got his gun from Miller’s car and gave it to the killer, who then shot and killed the victim.
Despite the fact that Miller knowingly brought a gun to a teammate who clearly intended to use it in a show of force, and parked his car in a manner to prevent the victim from escaping, Tuscaloosa authorities have not charged Miller, and the University of Alabama has allowed Miller to continue playing basketball.
“We knew about that,” Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats told reporters. “Can’t control everything anybody does outside of practice. Nobody knew that was going to happen. College kids are out, Brandon hasn’t been in any type of trouble nor is he in any type of trouble in this case. Wrong spot at the wrong time.”
Total nonsense. Miller was not just in the "wrong spot at the wrong time." Again, according to testimony from law enforcement, Miller knowingly brought a gun to a teammate he knew was going to use the gun, at a bare minimum, to scare another person. He also, apparently, parked his car in a manner that prevented the victim from escaping. What did he think was going to happen?
Miller is no innocent victim here. That Alabama hasn’t suspended Miller and that the SEC hasn’t stepped in and forbidden him from playing SEC basketball speaks volumes about Alabama’s priorities and the SEC’s. The NCAA is going to have a public relations nightmare on its hands if it lets this Alabama team and Miller play in the NCAA tournament.