American defender of the capital basketball club «Astana», Ian Miller, has already managed to catch the fancy of the public. First and foremost Miller immediately took a leading position in the team, well, and secondly a charming, smiling young man cannot be overlooked.
In an exclusive interview to our site Ian shared with us how he became engaged in basketball, explained the meaning of his tattoos and confided to whether he liked Astana frost. Well, first things first.
- Ian, hi. To get started would you tell me about yourself and about your family?
- I am from Charlotte, North Carolina. I am from sports family, my father is a former professional basketball player, he was my motivation, and he taught me everything. My mother was engaged in baseball. At the age of 2 years I was throwing a tennis ball in the basket, you can say I was an athlete by fate. The only thing I have a difficulty with is that I had been choosing a sport for a long time, because that time I was playing football better than basketball. And everyone thought that I would become a star of American football, but it happened so that though in basketball I was the worst player, it gave me a huge motivation to go on. Then I became one of the best basketball players in my age, I got into the top−25 from 300 basketball players. Unfortunately, my father died 1,5 years ago, and I devote my career to him, because he did a lot for me, so that I could practice professionally. I have an older brother, also a lot of cousins, and I am the youngest among them. I remember how they always hurt me, I always had to defend my rights, because parents were not near, and there was no one who could stand up for me, but I am thankful for this time, my character hardened. Now I have two sons myself, one is 3 years old, another is 2 years old, and now they are my motivation, because I used to think about yourself, and now think of them, about the family, because I have to provide them with everything the need, work even better as a player.
- What would you say about his current team PBC «Astana»?
- I believe that we have a promising team. We are young and ambitious. We always need to show our intention to fight so that our fans support us, because tit is difficult for fans to support the underdogs, but we demonstrate with our game that we can win, all the guys we have are all fighters. I love and respect my coaches, because they do not just expect something from me, they want to teach me something, and this is important. It happens that a coach immediately expects a good game from you, but he does not teach you. Here everything is different; here I am taught to play on different positions. For example, it is something new for me to play at the point guard position. In any case, I believe that our team will achieve a great success.
- The season has just started, 5 games in the VTB United League are behind. Do you happy with your game?
- I do not know how I look in the eyes of my coach or in the eyes of the fans, can’t say if they are happy or not, but I am always hard on myself. I'm not happy with my game, because I was not as effective as I used to. But I’ve been adapting to the new game, a new role of one of the key players, and this process is not that easy. I am not demonstrating a stable game at the moment, I am definitely worried about it, but I think all the players and myself are going to find themselves on court over time. If talking about the last game against Kalev, which we lost unfortunately, I was aggressive and gained my confidence. I am currently recovering from injury. I hope to accumulate new energy to be in the right shape for the following games.
-Your jersey number is 44, what does number mean to you?
- 44 is my father’s basketball jersey number. As I said before I dedicate my career to my father.
- How do you like Astana as a city?
- I like Astana very much, especially the weather. I hate hot weather and here it's cold, so I love it (smiling). I like people of Astana, everybody is friendly, no matter where I go.
- How do you like a local cuisine?
- Frankly speaking, I have not tried local dishes yet. I've discovered three nice places, mostly with an Italian cuisine. In one of three cafes an owner offered me some local dishes but I decided not to try it out. Season is long, for sure I will have time to try.
- You have a lot of tattoos on your body, what do they mean?
I made my first tattoo at the age of 18. Each of them are not unaffected, all of them have sense, all of them mean something. For example, this is the brand of my children's charity camp, this one reads «Family over all», this is «all for family,» but this — «Never leave my brothers», here we with Florida State won the championship, and the whole team did the same tattoo — a tribe arrow, so and this one, for example, is the district in Charlotte, where I was born.
- Tell us about your children's camp?
- I started conducting these camps not so long ago, as a gratitude to my city. These camps are intended for difficult kids who cannot go in for sports. I give equipment to children, teach them basketball, also invite a lot of guests who could explain to children that it is important to make the right choices in life. Now there is a very big problem with murders in Charlotte, a lot of young kids kill their peers for no reason, and it is not right, this must not be so. I had problems, when I was a teenager, but there were many people who helped me. And so, we with my friends decided to create this project, where we can dedicate our time and money to children, difficult children, who are so numerous in my town.
- What are you keen on besides basketball?
- I like to play Sony play-station — FIFA, love shopping; also I collect sneakers (smiling).
- Thank you, Ian, for our interesting chat. We wish the best of luck!
-Thank you so much.
