Brandon Miller Has Friends In Low And High Places - Nashville Police Chief Wishes Him Best In Draft Despite Gun Scandal Before Charlotte Takes Him With 2nd Pick

It's all about connections, and former Alabama basketball player Brandon Miller has them.

He has a questionable one in former Crimson Tide teammate Darius Miles, who remains in a Tuscaloosa jail on a capital murder charge awaiting trial. Miles' childhood friend from Washington D.C., Michael Davis, is also in jail awaiting trial on a capital murder charge as the shooter. He allegedly shot Jamea Jonae Harris on Jan. 15 near the Alabama campus with Miles' gun.

According to police testimony, Miller drove the gun to Miles on the Alabama Strip because Miles had forgotten it in Miller's car.

Miller has never been charged in connection to the murder. And Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats, the Alabama athletic department or the University of Alabama took any disciplinary action against Miller.

Brandon Miller Expected To Be No. 2 Pick In NBA Draft

A 6-foot-9 freshman forward, Miller went into Thursday night's NBA Draft (8 p.m., ABC) expected to go as high as the No. 2 pick of the first round to the Charlotte Hornets. And the Hornets did just that after close examination of Miller's background.

Miller has no criminal record. He has been described by his coaches and teammates at Alabama and at Cane Ridge High in Tennessee as a solid young man with no issues. His father Darrell Miller is a former tight end for the Crimson Tide. Miller grew up in Antioch, Tennessee - 11 miles from Nashville.

Miller's dad is friends with Metro Nashville Police Department chief John Drake. And chief Drake sent out his best wishes for Brandon in the NBA Draft on Twitter.

This is a strange combination to some.

Criminal defense attorney Will Conway, a Tennessee graduate, didn't see such a connection coming in the above tweet. But, hey, he may just be mad that Miller left the state of Tennessee for the Vols' rival - Alabama.

Brandon Miller Badly Needs Advice

Miller likely appreciates the good wishes from Chief Drake. But hopefully Drake told Miller what his father Darrel Miller also should have told him, if he hasn't already. Oats should have told Miller the following, too, if he hasn't already.

"You shouldn't have been there, period."

Remember what Alabama football coach Nick Saban said when one of his players was recently arrested.

"There's no such thing as 'the wrong place at the wrong time."