There are a few players amid lengthy NBA careers, and when you think of players who spent a long time in the league, former point guard Andre Miller certainly isn’t at the top of the list.
Instead, superstars like Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, who has spent 22 years in the league and will be in season 23 in 2025, are the ones we remember having lengthy NBA careers.
Former All-Star shooting guard Vince Carter also played 22 seasons, while center Robert Parish and star forwards Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki each played 21 seasons. Laker greats Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kobe Bryant played 20 seasons, the same number of years that Chris Paul, the league’s current second-longest tenured player behind James, has played. Paul will return to the Clippers, where he played from 2011–2017, for his 21st season.
For Miller, who was a bit of a journeyman, lasting that long in the league is extremely impressive.
Andre Miller Credits His Diet For His Lengthy Career
Miller spent time with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets (on two separate occasions), Philadelphia 76ers, Washington Wizards, Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs over the course of his 17 seasons, during which he missed just three games to injury.
Miller appeared on “All the Smoke” with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson and explained the unique diet that helped him have such a lengthy career.
“I ate burgers and fries,” Miller said. “I ate pizza, you know what I’m saying? I ate popcorn, and I let my body gain weight in the summer. I didn’t do nothing special. It was just the urge and the hunger to be available in practice, in the games. The three games that I say I missed, two of them were to funerals and one of them was to a hurt ankle, I believe.”
Miller would come back to Los Angeles and pack on the weight before the season.
“I come right back home to Los Angeles and it’s barbecues,” Miller explained. “I’m eating. I’m gonna gain 20 pounds in like four or five days. Straight up, man. But I take like May, June off. And since I’m not tall like y’all, man, I can always pull up. I see some people on the street playing, and just jump in and play some pickup ball.”
Miller would have to start playing nonstop to get himself back in shape but still show up to training camp overweight.
“But it really picked up once kids started to go back in school in August, and then everybody would go to UCLA. Let me get up in here and try to shed some of this weight, which I couldn’t. And then play till Labor Day weekend.”
Miller averaged 12.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.2 steals per game over his 17-year career. He is 12th all-time in assists with 8,524 (Clippers guard James Harden is right on his tail with 8,316), so although his methods were unorthodox, he was clearly doing something right.
