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Trey Kerby and the Cult of Brad Miller

Brad Miller is a solid NBA center who has played in the league for twelve seasons. He went undrafted after playing four years for Gene Keady at Purdue, but signed on with the then Charlotte Hornets in the middle of his first season after college.  Miller improved each season, and he had some great seasons with the Sacramento Kings in the mid aughts. Miller was named an All-Star for the Pacers in 2003 and the Kings in 2004. Miller now plays for the Houston Rockets, although he won't be back on the court until January as he recovers from microfracture surgery.

Miller's career averages are 11 ppg, 7 rpg, and 3 apg, which are pretty solid. He is one of only five undrafted players to make an All-Star team. Miller has an excellent passing game for a center, and has three triple-doubles in his career.

That's a pretty solid resume, but there are a lot of NBA players who have had long above-average careers with many different teams. Not many of these players have a doppelganger who makes funny videos and writes about them on popular NBA blogs.

Brad Miller does, and his name is Trey Kerby. And he is lucky to have him. Thanks to Kerby, Brad Miller has achieved a level of internet fame beyond that of a normal NBA veteran.

Trey Kerby is household name among households that follow NBA blogs. He first started writing for his own blog the Blowtorch, where he wrote NBA related humor, posted some excellent photoshops, and most importantly for this post, started posting "The Brad Miller Show", a series of videos in which Kerby portrays Brad Miller doing various things such as practicing famous dunks without a ball or a goalworking on his karate moves and shaving. In addition to the videos, there are a ton of hilarious posts, and Brad Miller is featured in a lot of them. 

Kerby then got a job writing at Ball Don't Lie and eventually became the editor of that widely read Yahoo! blog. He continued writing his excellent Brad Miller posts, and when he quit working for BDL the picture on his farewell post was of the former Boilermaker engaged in a goofy celebration. 

Kerby currently serves as editor of The Basketball Jones blog and writes several jokes a night on twitter. He was kind enough to answer a few Brad Miller-related questions for us via email. Here they are:

Why Brad Miller?

TK: I've been called "Brad Miller" in pickup games since at least 2004. He's a slow big guy with a nice jumper who likes to pass a lot. I play very similarly to that, plus I have a beard. It's a natural fit.

What is your favorite Brad Miller moment?

TK: 

Which "Brad Miller Show" video is your favorite?

TK: Practicing karate is my favorite, but I think "A Day In the Life" is probably the best one.

Do you think that your dad (Kerby's nickname for Brian Cardinal) has stolen some of Miller's thunder with his performance in the Finals? Is there room in NBA fans' hearts for two goofy white guys who played for Purdue in the nineties?

TK: Since B Milli had surgery, Dad's been proudly carrying the goofy bro mantle. I kind of wonder if only one of them is allowed to be hilarious at the same time.

Who will fill the Brad Miller void when he finally retires in 2025?

TK: Probably Spencer Hawes, who has the game and the slight bit of wannabe gangsta necessary to emulate Brad's success as a human meme.

Thanks again to Trey Kerby for answering our questions. His current writing can be found at The Basketball Jones. His old website the Blowtorch is still up and it has great posts such as this. You can find his archived posts from his time at Ball Don't Lie here. If you are on twitter and like basketball and jokes, he is a must follow @treykerby.

Also, thanks to Brad Miller, who I hope can continue playing on various NBA teams for at least ten more years.