LEADER OF THE PACK: Adam Miller Has A Wolf Mentality šŸŗ

If youā€™re going to try to understand Adam Miller, you need to understand this whole ā€œwolfā€ thing. There are levels to it.

First, thereā€™s his nickname, ā€œAce Wolf,ā€ which he explains is a derivation of his fatherā€™s nickname. ā€œMy dadā€™s name was ā€˜Ace,ā€™ so I was always ā€˜Lilā€™ Ace.ā€™ I was like, I gotta be something different. I gotta stand out a little bit more. Me and my AAU teammates would give each other animal nicknames, and I was like, I wanna be a werewolf. Call me ā€˜Ace Wolf.ā€™ Ever since then, Iā€™ve been, like, a superhero-hooper-type thing. Just doing what I do.ā€

Inspired nicknames are kind of a theme for Miller, the 6-3, 175-pound point guard from Chicagoā€™s Morgan Park HS who, along with fellow elite Windy City ballers DJ Steward, Marcus Watson and Shon Robinson, make up the TTMO squadā€”as in, ā€œTake That Mask Off.ā€ Millerā€™s mom, Andrea Garry, takes some credit for connecting those threadsā€”of being a standout among standouts. ā€œI said, If you say you want to be the wolf, go be a wolf. A wolf leads its pack. Be a leader.ā€

adam miller ace wolf

All of which helps explain the scene in November, when Miller eschewed the usual ball cap at his college announcement press conference and opted instead for a wolf maskā€”painted orange and blue. The Peoria native and current South Side rep is signed with Illinois, where heā€™s focused on repping his home state next year with a vengeance. As he puts it, ā€œI always thought, if I can get to the League, why not do it at home?ā€

He hasnā€™t made it to Champaign just yet, let alone to the League, but Millerā€™s progress thus far is the logical outcome of a life spent committed to the game. His mom remembers him hooping in the family basement in Peoria.

ā€œHis favorite thing when he was little used to be to play on a Little Tikes rim. But once he got to high school, he actually stacked it up on top of some weights, and he used to say, ā€˜Mom, weā€™re gonna kick it in the basement.ā€™ And Iā€™m like, Please do not take anyone down there. That is not a real room. But I was happy, because I knew he had the passion and the love for the game.ā€

Indeed, Adam says his dedication goes back to grade school, and the basement often served as his subterranean lab. ā€œIn fourth, fifth grade, I was down there playing all day, staying up until 2 a.m., 3 a.m., working on my handle, working on my layups, working on my shot, working on my passes, throwing the ball off the wall. I would get yelled at for that, but Iā€™d sneak and do it anyway. My grind has always been different.ā€

His workouts have evolved, of course, and the payoff is obvious to anyone whoā€™s seen Millerā€™s athletic, versatile, relentless game in action. Heā€™s dead serious about making all that hard work pay off, and heā€™s hardly lacking for motivation, including from those in his adopted community on the South Side.

ā€œYou would have to come into the city of Chicago to understand the vibe at Morgan Park,ā€ he says. ā€œIt ainā€™t no sunshine and rainbows. Itā€™s crazy out there. Everybody in that school, they trying to get something. Because most people in that school ainā€™t got nothinā€™.ā€

His own grind is inspired by Windy City heroes like G Herbo and the late Juice WRLD, both of whom he considered mentors and friends. Like them, heā€™s focused on using his skills to rise above his surroundings, no matter what.

Put simply, Miller says, ā€œI want everybody around me to live better.ā€

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Ryan Jones is a Contributing Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter at @thefarmerjones.

Portraits by Johnnie Izquierdo