In his own words, basketball saved Percy Master P Millers life. Growing up in the Third Ward in New Orleans, he emerged into a top high school point guard at Booker T. Washington. The game took him all the way to H-Town on an athletic scholarship at the University of Houston, and later, after majoring in business administration at Merritt in Oakland, he pursued music and opened No Limit Records. Even amidst mainstream success as he became a music mogul and executive, P still found his way back to the game, first as a hooperhe played some pro ball on the Charlotte Hornets and Toronto Raptors during training camp in the late 90sand, later on in life, as coach.
Coach P is a title he wears with pride. For him, providing the next generation with opportunity, resources and more is bigger than his own namesake or individual success. He founded his own AAU team, the P. Miller Ballers, and has coached everyone from DeMar DeRozan to Jalen Suggs.
Now, Miller has his sights set on empowering the next generation of student-athletes at the University of New Orleans, where hes just recently been named their new President of Basketball Operations.
This is what I get up in the morning for. I love this, P tells us over the phone last week. I love being a coach, and I love educating and preparing the next generation, because lot of these kids [are] going through a lot of things. Being able to help this program build a real NIL [program] to make sure our kids dont get into these things that kids are getting into, the negativities and [whatnot]. Its a business now, so these kids could actually make money, take care of their families and the ones thats gonna go to the pros, to be able to represent the whole Privateer Nation and be able to now take their skills to the next level. [Not everyone is] going to make it to the pros, but we can prepare everybody on this team to be successful in life.
As their new president, Miller is on mission to change the culture at UNO and build a competitive, top-notch program from the ground up. The focus will be entirely dialed in on what their student-athletes need, from sports-performance resources to marketing, partnerships and, as mentioned before, an established NIL program.
To be honest with you, its all about the culture, he says. Traditional coaching is done because these kids are getting paid. Coaches have to be involved in these kids lives. We want to be able to turn these kids into dogs and push it, but we also want to be able to show them love at the same time and let them know because a lot of these kids, some of them not going to have fathers in their life, so you going to have to be a father in their life to some. Its about pushing them to be successful, and it aint just about X and Os, even though were going to be able to to be experts at this, and being able to make sure we[re] watching film, we preparing for these games
With our team, were an Under Armour (sponsored) team, [so] the first thing that Im going to do is use my resources to go out and get Stephen Curry and UA to make this a premier team and to sponsor our university the right way.
Having talked to Deion Coach Prime Sanders about what hes doing on the football field as head coach of Colorado, Ps vision also includes empowering his players, many of whom are not just playing for UNO, but to better their families and loved ones.
These kids need certain things now, Miller continues. They need good places to stay. They need a great environment for living arrangements. They need the right nutrition. We need the right strength and conditioning coaches to be prepared to be able to go on the court, but also at the same time, these are young men now, so they need to be able to get around; Im reaching out to these car companies in our community, saying, Look, lets create these NIL deals so when these kids come here, they have the right tools and resources they need so they can focus on school and basketballThis is a business now for these inner city kids are taking care of their families through these sports and especially through basketball.
Since the news dropped of his new gig, much of the media attention, and headlines, have been focused entirely P, but what he makes especially clear is that the program and players are the priority. And theres no limit to what he has envisioned for the Privateers.
I want people to know its bigger than me coaching. Its about having the right players, because the players [are] going to determine how good you do in the season. I feel like a lot of players are going to want to play for me, because its about them. Its not about me.
