Cheryl Miller

Cheryl Miller is one of the greatest players in the history of women’s basketball. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995 – one of only 11 women who have been so honored.

Miller burst onto the national scene when she led USC to consecutive national titles in 1983 and 1984. She was the first player to “elevate” the women’s game with her superior leaping ability. Her overall marvelous basketball and athletic skills enabled her to dominate games, and that was reflected by her earning All-America honors four consecutive years. During her last three years at USC, she was the national college player of the year. She was the first athlete – male or female – to have her number retired by the university.

In 1984, she led the U.S. women to their first Olympic gold medal. Two years later, she led the U.S. to titles in the World Championship of Basketball and the Goodwill Games. Miller was voted ESPN Woman Athlete of the Year in 1985, and in 1986 she was the first woman basketball player to be nominated for the prestigious Sullivan Award (1985-86).

Miller returned to USC in 1993 as the head coach, and, again she excelled. During her two seasons as coach, USC had a 44-14 record for a .759 winning percentage, and in 1994, USC won the Pacific-10 Conference title.

Cheryl first worked as a broadcaster for ABC, where she handled a variety of assignments including reports for Wide World of Sports. in 1995, she joined Turner Sports as an analyst and reporter for NBA coverage on TNT and TBS. In November 1996, she became the first female analyst to work on a nationally televised NBA game.

Miller has also been actively involved in community service work. She was commissioner of the 1985 Los Angeles Olympic Committee Summer Youth Games and has been a spokesperson for the 1985-86 Los Angeles Literacy Campaign, as well as the American Lung, Diabetes and Cancer Associations and Muscular Dystrophy Association.

She is one-half of the greatest sister-brother basketball combination in history. Younger brother is Reggie of the Indiana Pacers followed in her golden footsteps when he represented the United States on the 1996 Dream Team at the Atlanta Olympics.