Getty Image / Brandon Sumrall
The Brandon Miller saga at Alabama has been national news for a week now. The situation is in relation to the star freshman forward’s alleged involvement in a January shooting that has resulted in murder charges against his former teammate Darius Miles.
The shooting, which resulted in the death of Jamea Harris, was brought back into the spotlight this week with new testimony by Tuscaloosa detective Branden Carpenter. In it, he said that the murder weapon was in Miller’s car up until shortly before the shooting.
That set out national outrage that the projected lottery pick was still playing. And, Alabama coach Nate Oats didn’t help the situation when he chalked up the ordeal to Miller being “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Miller has not let it affect his play, though. He’s had a remarkably 65 points in two games this week, 41 in a monster effort against South Carolina and 24 in Saturday’s come-from-behind win against Arkansas.
But, more controversy came Saturday, when in the pregame introductions, Brandon Miller imitated getting patted down by a teammate.
It’s important to note that this has been his standard introduction all year, but you’d think they would’ve thought better of it given recent events.
Brandon Miller being introduced during the starting lineups pic.twitter.com/Fen0xT8V8L
— Ryan Hennessy (@RyanWVTM13) February 25, 2023
Afterwards, Oats, spoke out about the incident.
Regarding this Brandon Miller intro, Alabama head coach Nate Oats opens his postgame presser by saying this was just brought to his attention.
"Regardless, it's not appropriate. It's been addressed and I can assure you it definitely will not happen again." https://t.co/XJ6XCCDCSI
— Coley Harvey (@ColeyHarvey) February 25, 2023
Here’s the problem, though. On Sunday, Miller’s twitter banner was still a photo of the introduction.
Brandon Miller's Twitter banner is still a photo of him being frisked.
Outrage was sparked Saturday when a teammate frisked Miller prior to the Arkansas game, and Alabama coach Nate Oats announced it will no longer be allowed. https://t.co/8nKVsYmHtr
— OutKick (@Outkick) February 26, 2023
At a massive athletic department like Alabama, they should probably be paying someone to handle the PR of this situation better.