Player comes back to game

INDIANAPOLIS -- Oliver Miller's travels to return to the NBA have been as wide as his portly 325-pound frame.\nMiller, a first-round pick in 1992 who helped Phoenix reach the NBA Finals as a rookie, is trying to win a roster spot in training camp with the Indiana Pacers. Miller, though, doesn't look at this as a last chance to revive a stagnant NBA career.\nInstead, he says he is hungry again. The 32-year-old, 6-foot-9 center has rediscovered his love for the game and says he can become a productive player again.\n"I'll never cut it out unless I'm in a wheelchair, a walker, or you see me somewhere on Jerry Springer stuck in a bed and I can't get out," Miller said.\nWhat Miller was stuck in was career limbo, wondering whether he would ever get the chance to play again in the NBA. Now, he's asking the Pacers for a fair shot at making the roster and not use his fluctuating weight as an excuse.\n"It's always about my weight, my weight," Miller said. "Even when I was in the CBA, it was we wanted you but we heard you couldn't run up and down the floor. We heard you were 500 pounds. Don't believe everything you hear. Put me out in the floor and then make a judgment."\nWhile he said his play will answer any lingering questions about his commitment to the game, it's the path he took to get invited to camp that Miller said proved how badly he wanted to return.\nHe didn't bounce around from the Harlem Globetrotters, to the CBA, to the ABA and USBL -- all in one year -- because he liked playing in front of a hundred people in the middle of nowhere.\n"I just wanted to prove to everyone in the league I'm still dedicated and committed," Miller said. "I put up the numbers people said I couldn't do."\nWant to talk about life as a big man with Miller?\nHe'll tell you how he comes up big, posting triple doubles and ranking among league leaders in everything from blocks to scoring everywhere he plays. With the USBL's Dodge City Legend he was even second on the team in assists with 72, while playing in only 15 games.\nDodge City was yet another pit stop for Miller, who played for five teams in an eight-year NBA career. He enjoyed his best season in 1995-96 with Toronto, when he averaged 12.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.88 blocks in a career-best 76 games.\nThat year, Brendan Malone, now a Pacers assistant, was Toronto's coach and Isiah Thomas, now Indiana's coach, was part owner. Their positive relationship allowed the Pacers to offer Miller a tryout.\nThomas said Miller's girth has caused his abilities to be overlooked.\n"There's a prejudice against people that we may consider overweight, but they're great athletes," Thomas said. "Oliver Miller is a great athlete. He gets up and down the floor and passes the ball."\nStill, Miller hasn't played in the NBA since the 1999-2000 season, when he played in 51 games in his second stint with the Suns. He said concerns about his weight, which he said ballooned to about 375 pounds, was the only issue that kept him out of the league.\nEven if this chance with the Pacers doesn't work out, Miller says he is confident he will play in the NBA this season.\n"If I go to the CBA, I won't last a month," he said. "I know I'm in shape to go play. I've gone through an NBA training camp and will be a step ahead of them.\n"People in the NBA will say, there's a big man in the CBA putting up numbers and we need a big man."\nFor now, Miller is content to help the Pacers in the frontcourt. It won't be easy, however, as the Pacers already have 14 players under contract and Miller is one of three free-agent signees left in camp.\n"If I don't make it here, hopefully a team that I play against I can make an impression," Miller said. "In my mind, I'm here. I'm just looking forward to being a Pacer"