One-on-One with C.J. Miles
One-on-One with C.J. Miles
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By Travis Heath
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Mar 2, 2007, 20:17
He may have purest jumpshot on the team, not to mention the best smile, yet
most of the NBA universe has no idea who C.J. Miles is. Well, they may want
to take notice because the 19-year-old from Dallas' Skyline High School could
be one to watch in the future.
Last week, after a spirited pre-game workout, Miles took some time to chat
one-on-one with BNS' Travis Heath about Utah's unique team camaraderie, epic
videogame battles between he and his teammates, his time in the D-League, why
he doesn't complain about playing time like so many other young NBA players,
and much more!
Just finishing up watching you guys play some one-on-one games during
warm-ups here. I mean, I watch every team warm-up as they come through
Denver and you guys seem to warm-up harder than most teams. There is some
competitiveness, some trash-talking. Is that helpful for you guys? Is that
a good thing?
Yeah, I mean to us that's how it's supposed to be. You get guys into the
game and they play hard because no one wants to get embarrassed for one. And
two, we just like to play basketball. We'll play after practice, on days
off. We just come here and play just to play. You never know how many
minutes you are going to get, so it just help us stay in shape because we go
so hard when we play -- especially up here in the altitude on top of that.
So we just get out here and play hard because you never know when you are
going to get called or something happens. Maybe it just might be a night
when the rotation differs and you just want to be ready for it.
A lot of people in the media say Utah needs to get better at the two-guard.
I'm just curious, because I see a lot of talent there -- you, Ronnie Brewer
and Matt Harpring. Do you expect to get more time at the two-guard, and do
you think that you can come on and be that starting two-guard at some point?
I mean, everybody has been saying it for like a year since I got here.
They've been saying it for awhile, and I just take it as a challenge. I take
it as I want to be the guy -- when my time comes or when it's time for me to
playing minutes -- I want to be that guy who stops everybody from saying
that. If that's the piece we need, I want to be that piece. I'm just
working hard everyday and trying to get better so when coach does call my
name I'll be ready and I can silence that talk.
You had a stint in the D-League again this season. Was that a good thing for
you or was it more frustrating?
(冗字?)
When they first tell you it's always frustrating because you're kind of mad
because they are sending you down. But then when you get down there, I
didn't go down there and think, 'Okay, I'm going to shoot the ball every time
I touch it because I was sent down.' I went down and I tried to play and help
my team win games, play hard and get better, so when I came back, I wouldn't
just come back and jack-up every shot. I worked on every part of my game
from defense to rebounding to everything. So I went down and I tried to do
everything and not just score, because the coaches know that offense is a big
part of my game. They want to see me do the other things, so I went down and
tried to focus on that. Playing 35 minutes a game is better. Drills are
only going to take you so far in practice. Learning stuff at game speed is a
lot easier because you've got to react. So at game speed, it was just that
much better for me.
This Jazz teams strikes me as a team that's pretty together. I mean, some
teams have that facade of being together but when you really break it down
they aren't. But you guys seem to really have that. What do you attribute
that team chemistry to because you guys genuinely seem to get along?
A common ground of all of us being so competitive, all of us wanting to win
game and all of us loving to play the game of basketball. So nobody is
really worried about numbers. We've got guys who get numbers because that's
what they do. Like Deron, Booz and Memo, they're great players and that's
what they do. So the other guys, we take our spots and some nights when
they're not going it might be our turn to get some numbers that night. When
I play, I get a lot of open shots off double teams and me being able to make
those shots helps them out more and helps me out more. We're all like
brothers. We hang out together on and off the court. Like off the court we
call each other and everybody goes to somebody's house to play videogames or
we might all go out together and see a movie. It just depends on what it is.
You just brought up video games and I've got to talk to you about that. What
games do you guys play, and who's the best?
We play NBA 2K7, but I'm taking king of that one, though. I'm king of that
one. You can ask and they'll tell you. I'm not just boasting on that one.
But then since Playstation 3 has been out we've been playing the Resistance
Fall of Man game, but we play it like Halo where we kill each other. So we
play that game a lot. We play a little bit of Madden. Dee Brown is the king
of Madden, I'll give him that. I don't like to admit it, but he's a beast on
that game. We play the NCAA football, college football. Ronnie's pretty
good at college football. He might be the king of that. We only play about
three or four games, but we really get into it, though.
So 2K7, do you play as the Jazz? Do you play as yourself? Like I was
talking to Gilbert Arenas awhile back and he told me he plays as himself and
shoots the ball every time.
It kinds of depends for me who they play with, sometimes. But a lot of times
it really doesn't matter. Sometimes I play with the Jazz and sometimes I
might play with other teams. Of course if I do play with the Jazz I give it
to myself and shoot the ball every time! It's a habit. You don't think
about it, you just do it (smiles). But I mean I play with a lot of different
teams -- Miami, San Antonio. It just depends how I feel that day.
Here's the million dollar question. Are you rated high enough on 2K7?
(pauses) I mean, I can't really say that because I didn't really play a lot
of minutes last year so they really didn't have much to go off of. I'll say
this, though, I don't shoot the ball well enough on there. I shot the ball
well enough last year for them to have me shoot the ball a little better.
Other than that, I don't know.
Sorry, we got off on the video game tangent there. Earlier we were talking
about that team chemistry you guys have, but I've also noticed how you handle
things individually. Even though you are not playing a lot of minutes of
late, you always have that smile and you cheer your teammates on . . . and it
looks genuine. But I'm imagining somewhere deep in your heart it's tough to
be sitting on the bench. How do you maintain that positive attitude you have?
I just try not to worry about it. I mean, I can't really control it. Like I
can't go and be like, 'Coach, you've got to put me in the game.' It's not
something I can do. So I just keep working hard and keep doing what I can do
knowing that I'm going to be ready when it's time for me to play. Because
when you start thinking, then when you get your chance you start thinking so
much that you can't mess up then you go and mess up. That will just reduce
your minutes even more. I just stayed positive with myself and just kept
telling myself I belong. And that was the main thing just to prove that I
belong here and I can play. Once I got my stint playing a lot of minutes at
the beginning of this year and the end of last year and showing that I
belong, then it was just more of a confidence thing, not getting down on
myself. I've learned from my mistakes. I did let (not playing) affect me.
I had like four or five games when I played terrible because I was so mad
about the game that started it.
Let's keep it real now C.J., so many guys wouldn't react the same way that
you do. And I'm not throwing him under the bus because he's my boy, J.R.
Smith, but he complained about minutes last year with the Hornets. He's a
young guy like you who came straight out of high school. What is inside of
you that stops you from complaining about minutes? What judgment do you make
to say that I'm not going to complain about minutes or not asked to be traded?
I don't know. It's hard every once in awhile like now, but I mean everybody
feels like they should play more minutes. It's just . . . I don't know. I
really don't know. It's just trying to be humble and trying to stay where
I'm at and just stay the way I am. It's just knowing that I can play and
knowing that a chance is going to come as long as I keep working. And it's
knowing that when I get that chance I'm not going to give it back. So I
can't talk and then when you give me minutes and I don't play well . . . and
I did all this talking and I go out there and prove them right . . . there's
no sense in that. I don't want to start any kind of brawl where there's
something going on between me and the coach or me and the management. Then
I'm really not going to play more, I'm going to get traded and then I'm going
to have this rep as a guy who complains and is a detriment or cancer to a
team. I don't want to be that type of guy. So I just think if I keep
working it's going to come, and when it comes you just grab hold of it and
ride it.
You were in the last class of guys who came straight out of high school.
You're in your second year now. What have you learned from February of last
season to February of this year?
The biggest thing was how to play hard all the time. With me coming from
high school, you had times where guys weren't . . . I don't mean to sound . .
. but every guy couldn't compete with you at the same level. So you had
nights where you could come out and play down and still get your numbers.
Here, you've got to play every possession and all the time. So that was one
of the biggest things for me was to learn how to consistently play hard and
consistently go as hard as I can. You can just tell like when you were
watching me play one-on-one games here last year, and this year . . . I'm
trying to kill everybody every time I step on the floor this year. I don't
want to lose any games. I mean, I didn't want to lose last year, but I would
get out there and I'd be kind of like I'll back up and he might miss the
shot. This year, I'm going to get up in him and do everything in my power to
try and win the game. I wasn't always like that.
Thanks for your time, brother. Best of luck.
Appreciate it, man.
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There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and many young players
in the NBA have a hard time navigating that line. Not Miles, though. His
humility is as genuine as his drive to be a great player. And before you
know it, don't be surprised if Miles evolves into a Ray Allen type, classy
both on and off the court with a jumper as deadly as any in basketball. It
may seem far-fetched now, but when you see how hard he works behind the
scenes and flashes of what he's capable of when he actually gets a chance to
play under the lights -- like his 17-point performance in just 22 minutes of
play earlier this season against Golden State -- it becomes clear that this
kid has a chance to be the real deal.
--
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