“She Hated Me”: Just to Win a Bet, Hall of Famer Admits 1984 Olympic Gold Journey Despite Riling Up Coach With Back-to-Back NCAA Championships

1984 was a special year for the USA women’s basketball team as they clinched gold for the first time at the Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. The home team along with South Korea finished as the top two teams in the round-robin and competed against each other for the gold medal. Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller recently opened up about an anecdote regarding the same on the Knuckleheads podcast on Thursday.

For the unversed, Cheryl Miller is one of the greatest women’s basketball players to have graced the game. Her career spanned across almost all sectors including being a player, coach, and broadcaster. Let’s have a look at what she had to say.

What did Cheryl Miller do

“The best way to kind of describe it… Freshmen year National Championship sophomore year when my second at UCLA on their court it was wondeful and we beat… in the finals playing against Tennessee,, and Pat Summitt is the Olympic coach… Playing in the final game, I doont know why I did half of the things I did but I did..we’re killing them, we’re winning the game is … and there was a bet before the game.. She goes I want you to do a cartwheel… I said during the game? Okay, I’ll do a cartwheel… i do a cartwheel… and guys she hated me, everytime she got the opportunity to break me down this woman would do it,” admitted Cheryl.

Miller recollected her time during the 1984 NCAA women’s championship final between her team University of South California and the Tennessee. Tennessee was headed by coach Pat Summitt who was later appointed as the coach for the women’s basketball Olympics team.

Miller recollected how she did a cartwheel in front of Summit that really riled her up. For the unversed, USC won the NCAA championship back-to-back twice, and both times Tennessee was coached by Pat Summitt. While during the ’83 title championship, Tennessee lost to Georgia in the regional finals, the next year they progressed to the coveted title finals only to lose to the defending champions- the University of South California.

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As the story goes, it was during the 84 championship finals that in order to win a bet Miller did a cartwheel taking a dig at Summitt and her team. As per NBC sports before the Olympics team was named, Miller had one awful half with the USA women’s basketball team and Summitt had benched Miller expressing her rebuke for her. However, in the Olympic final Miller propelled her team to an 85-55 victory over the South Koreans and safely sealed the medal for her team.

What all did Miller speak about

Miller also opened up on other incidents ranging from her childhood and how basketball became a core sport for her to NBA legends Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. She also divulged a lot of information about the formation of the WNBA, her broadcasting career, and injury.

Thus, Miller recounted stories from her playing days and her relationship with Summitt. And how a winning combination was formed despite the differences between the two. Was Miller right in doing a cartwheel? Or did Summitt behave a lot more strictly? Please let us know in the comments below.

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