For 'Baby Jordan,' It's All About Daughter Kami Now

Harold Miner cut ties with basketball (and public life) after injuries forced him to retire at 25
By Gina Carey,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 25, 2023 6:19 AM CST
Her Athletic Rise Brought Retired NBA Dad Back Out
Stanford volleyball setter Kami Miner during a game.   (Stanford Athletics/YouTube)

"That was 30 years ago," Harold Miner says, brushing aside ESPN reporter Aishwarya Kumar's gentle probing into his NBA career. "Who cares?" What happened 30 years ago was Miner's meteoric rise to professional basketball, a time when he was dubbed "Baby Jordan" (yes, after that Jordan), only to play just 200 games before injuries forced him out. Kumar's ESPN story connects just how that history helped shape daughter Kami's path into becoming perhaps the country's top college volleyball setter—and healed his long rift with the sports world. Miner grew up in Inglewood, California, where he became fixated with basketball early. Natural ability combined with obsessive practice brought him to an elite camp as a high school sophomore, where Michael Jordan challenged camp MVP Miner to a game of one-on-one, earning him his future nickname. (Jordan won, 5-4.)

"When somebody compares you to the best player of all time, you're going to take notice of it and it makes you feel like you're on the right path," he said. After starring for USC, he was 12th in the '92 NBA draft, where expectations remained high, but pain in his knee stopped him from ever soaring to new heights. Miner's departure from the game was abrupt, and he remained in a funk until his daughter's athleticism wakened his passion for training to be the greatest. Kami, a student at Stanford, has learned to channel her father's intensity on her way to becoming a top performer. As she rolls with his extreme dad energy with good humor, there's one lesson from his story he will not allow her to forget: failing to take care of your body can take it all away. Read the full story. (Or check out more longform stories.)

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