Metairie, La. — Pelicans small forward, Darius Miller, joins Karen Loftus on Pizza and the Playbook this week to talk about his second stint with the Pels, the experience he got playing in Germany and the Pelicans Kentucky Alumni Chapter.
KL: “You were drafted by the Pelicans in 2012, played for them for a couple seasons, went over to Germany, and now you’re back. How much better is this second stint going then the first time when you just entered the league?”
DM: “Way better. As you all know, we’ve got a bunch of Kentucky guys so that makes it a lot easier playing with people I’ve known for a long time and having more experience and being more mature about the whole situation.”
KL: “We’ll get back to the Kentucky thing in a second, but let’s talk about your time in Germany. You won back-to-back league championships, you were named finals MVP over there. It looks like you got a ton of great experience. How much did you grow as a player over there?”
DM: “A ton. And there’s so much time to work on your game over there. I got a great chance to put-in a lot of work for my game and play a lot of quality minutes. I definitely matured a lot on and off the court.”
KL: “How’s your German?”
DM: “Terrible.”
KL: “Really?”
DM: “My wife’s is pretty good. My daughter actually started speaking German because we put her into school so my wife had to learn it a little bit. But it was just too much for me.”
KL: “What can you give us of your German?”
DM: “I really don’t have anything.”
KL: “Not even a full sentence?”
DM: “Cuss words.”
KL: “Oh perfect.”
DM: “That’s all my teammates would teach me because they thought it was funny.”
KL: “You guys basically have a Kentucky alumni chapter on the Pelicans roster. How cool is that?”
DM: “So cool. Especially with these guys. I’ve been close with these guys since we played together. I didn’t play with Rondo but I’ve obviously been watching him being from Kentucky too.”
KL: “You have seemed to have gotten into a groove– especially with your 3-point shooting. Even Rondo suggested that you participate in the All-Star festivities in the 3-point contest. What do you think about that?”
DM: “That would be amazing. That would be a huge honor. I really try not to look into that too much.”
KL: “Reps. Getting reps is a huge part of developing your shot. Do you have a certain number of shots that you take every practice or pre-game?”
DM: “Not really a certain number. I’ve got a routine that I do but not a certain number of shots.”
KL: “Final question– what’s your favorite type of pizza?”
DM: “Pepperoni.”
KL: “But no pizza on game day.”
