C.J. Miles is one of the better personalities in the Pacers locker room. After two years in Cleveland, he agreed to sign with Indiana on a four-year deal worth $18 million.
Just over the midway point of the season, he’s had more than his share of health issues, including multiple calf strains, a migraine, and getting poked in the eye twice.
He has since settled in, and become one of the team’s top contributors in the absence of George Hill and Paul George. In the locker room, he’s a great interview — honest, engaging, and oftentimes comical.
Now 43 games into the 2014-15 season, you know Miles the player. Here’s a little bit about the Texas native with a bubbly personality.
Rap Game
When some of his teammates may be watching movies, TV shows, or playing a video game console, C.J. Miles is writing.
Not a journal, nor a book. Lyrics. Hip-hop lyrics.
“I’ve been into music since I was kid, singing in choirs growing up,” the first-year Pacer explained. “I always wrote as a kid. I learned how to play the piano in middle school. I went through all of that and was about all of that.”
Miles in the studio a couple years ago to record his only published album. (Photo via his Instagram)
Miles’ escape during the NBA season is music. In particular, writing music. (He saves the creation of beats and songs for the offseason.)
The 27-year-old from Dallas has been making music long before he started to compile songs to create an album. One day, it dawned on him.
“You know what,” he thought, “I’m going to try to put a project together.”
And, a few years ago, he began that effort.
“I’ll put it on the Internet, why not?” he continued. “I didn’t like pub it but if anyone wanted to listen to it, they could. Little did I know that people would actually like it.”
Miles begins many of his songs with a quiet echo of “CJ’s beats” or “CJ the Great.”
So, while on the team charter flights and buses, Miles often efficiently spends his time writing. That’s how chooses to temporarily mute the basketball world he’s living in. (Everyone needs a way to turn off work sometimes.)
During the summer, it’s basketball during the day and music at night.
“That’s where I go,” he said, with his usual wide, contagious smile. “That’s the thing I like to do.”
His only public release, ‘No Camping’ is available to download or simply stream. (All songs are listed as clean edits.) Miles made another mixtape this past summer, but decided not to publish it.
“I couldn’t tell you an exact answer why I didn’t,” he replied. “It’s just sitting in my computer.”
Hablas español?
As most opt to keep it simple on social media (myself included), Miles chooses to be different — and entertaining.
C.J. is averaging 12 points and shooting 36 percent in his first season with the Pacers.
During the 2012 summer, before he signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers in free agency, he decided it was time to change his Twitter handle.
“I didn’t want to just put my name and number,” he recalled. “I wanted to show more personality.”
He finally settled on “mas fresco,” for ‘more fresh’ in Spanish.
“Then, do you know Spanish?” I asked him.
Miles laughed, then answered, “I actually just Google’d it. The day I was trying to figure it out, I was just Googling different stuff. I put those together and it sounded right.”
Follow C.J. on Twitter, and on Instagram.
Be Careful How You Google Him
Going back to our first long conversation, in late September…
“Last thing,” I said, “you Google C.J. Miles…”
He cut me off.
“And there’s another C.J. Miles,” he quickly answered, knowing exactly where I was going…
With a wide grin, he proceeded to explain.
“The way I found out was I held a [basketball] camp a long time ago, probably seven years ago,” Calvin Andre Miles, Jr. said. “I had no idea about it. People told the kids that they could go print out a picture and they could bring it [to camp for me to sign]. I had no idea. Obviously they had no idea. And the kids went to print out a picture and got to the camp and the parents were complaining that she popped up.
The first return on Google reads, “CJ Miles – Sexy Filipina CJ Miles is the hottest nude girl that…”
Same name, but a very different result for C.J. Miles on the popular search engine.
Click on images, and it takes quite a bit of scrolling to finally find the NBA player.
Search results for the Pacers’ C.J.
“I was like, “Sorry! I had no idea.’ That’s how I found out,” he said.
Later on, Miles had a friend who knew both of them and tried to link them. The Pacers’ guard opted not to. “I didn’t think there was any point,” he said.
Next time you want to look up biographical information or stats of Pacers’ starter, be careful. And it’s probably best to search, “C.J. Miles Pacers.”