Real Madrid lose youth team pearl Baba Miller to Florida State
The 18-year-old forward will leave Madrid’s youth academy to try his luck in the NCAA. He is one of the best European players of his generation.
Real Madrid are set to lose one of the most talented players of a generation - a player who has come up through their youth system. Small forward Baba Miller, who is regarded as one of the most promising talents on the continent, has decided to try his luck in the NCAA. This summer he will enroll at Florida State University to play there with the Seminoles. The player has publicly announced his decision after visiting several universities and choosing Florida State over what appeared to have been his first option, Gonzaga. He would have found it tougher to further his development in Washington due to the amount of players already on the books for 2022/23.
Madrid’s youth academy will be sad to lose Miller, a player tipped to have a bright future ahead of him. He has been at the club since 2016 and played in both the shooting guard and point guard positions but now he has grown to 2.08 metres, he has been playing as a small forward. Born in 2004, Miller is now of age (18). He was born in Palma, Mallorca although he has British ancestry.
Miller started out playing for Mallorca-based outfit Bahía San Agustín and started to get noticed after his family moved to Madrid where he began playing for Distrito Olímpico in the north-east San Blas-Canillejas district of the capital. After a short spell with Distrito Olímpico Baba enlisted in Real Madrid’s youth academy. He has been a member of Mariano de Pablos’s B team, playing in the Liga EBA since 2020. Last season, he ended with an average of 12.9 points per game - an impressive figure. In 2021, he was part of that side that ended as champions of the Euroleague Next Generation tournament - Madrid however, were unable to repeat that success in the 2022 edition in Belgrade.
He made his senior debut for Real Madrid in the team’s heroic 71-65 victory over CSKA in December when Pablo Laso was left without half of his roster to coronavirus.
Spanish national Sediq Garuba and Eli Ndiaye, who holds a Spanish passport after gaining his certificate of naturalization, are two other names who played alongside Miller in Madrid’s B team. Baba, an international with Spain at youth level, will be taking part in this summer’s FIBA U18 European Championship in Izmir, Turkey.
“Europe is a great place to compete, but not to develop”
In an official statement posted on his personal social media accounts, Miller mentioned Gonzaga’s interest and thanked Real Madrid:
“After a lot of thought, I have made a final decision. I would like to thank my family for their constant support, courage and unconditional Love. I would also like to thank all of the entities who have shown an interest in me during the past few months, especially Gonzaga. And finally, I would like to thank Real Madrid, and all of the coaches and team mates who I have worked with during these past six years - it has been a wonderful journey. It was a tough decision for me to take, but I am very excited about this next step in my career. I am going to give everything I have got for FSU”
In other declarations to ESPN, Miller explained why he feels it’s time to move on rather than stay in Europe:
“There was a moment in my career when I thought about staying in Europe. But later, I was 100% certain that I had to go to the United States to become a better player. Especially in the technical and physical aspect of my game. Europe is a great place to compete but not to develop. In the US, you can improve in practice sessions and individual training even if you don’t play and that’s not the case in Europe”.