By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
Looking back at the final minutes of the first half in Buesa Arena against Fenerbahce, people may think Codi Miller-McIntyre is nothing but energy, vibrancy, and exuberance, transmitting what comes on the floor outside of it as well. That putback dunk after Markus Howard’s missed attempt screams it.
Catching up on the internet by simply searching some of his interviews, however, another side of his personality pops up. “I usually don’t talk most of the time on game day. I barely say any words. Sometimes, maybe one or two games”, he said to the official EuroCup website back in March 2022.
It looks like he can perfectly balance the different shades of his attitude, lighting the flame of candles or incense to prepare himself for what comes next before silencing it quietly. And then going on the court to erupt, maybe translating what he needs into all-around performances.
At the end of the day, in what most people may see as a surprising chapter after seven years in the making of an overseas professional career, that’s what he has been providing for Baskonia, first under the guidance of Joan Peñarroya and then following the leadership of head coach Dusko Ivanovic.
Within one week, he was two rebounds (10 points, 8 rebounds, and 13 assists vs Virtus Bologna) and one rebound (14 points, 9 rebounds, and 10 assists vs Anadolu Efes) away from the third-ever triple-double in EuroLeague history. Waiting for it to come, he exclusively opened up for an interview with Eurohoops.
Being familiar with the Greek team’s dominant forwards
Codi Miller-McIntyre’s career is one of a kind. Constantly on a roller-coaster, he was pretty close to getting to the next stage in various and different moments, but he always got dragged down. From Belgium to the Basque Country, going back to the US while also experiencing Russia.
It all started with Wake Forest University, where he played college basketball from 2012 to 2016 – reviewing a whiteboard filled with goals for his final season every single morning, before attending classes -, sharing the locker room and the school hallways with a familiar face of the EuroLeague.
“Dinos [Mitoglou] is my brother. When he came to Wake, everybody understood that he would have a great career, not only in America but potentially if he came back to Europe”, he first touched on the current Panathinaikos power forward, who played with him for two years (2014-16). “At that time we didn’t know much about Europe, the EuroLeague, or teams like Panathinaikos and Olympiacos. We didn’t understand how big the potential was for him to be”, he added.
What’s sure is that despite changing physically, his attitude remained untouched. “He was very small and skinny when he came, but he has always worked extremely hard. I think that’s one of the reasons why he and I became so close because we saw that in each other. He always had a great mentality, we were able to stay in touch over the years”, Codi Miller-McIntyre said about the Greek power forward.
Moreover, when he was at Partizan Belgrade in the 2020-21 EuroCup season, he had an opportunity to sign a 1+1 contract with Panathinaikos. “Dinos [Mitoglou] was the first one to call me, and we laughed and talked about it: “How crazy would it be?”, we kept on asking each other. Playing together on a stage like that after so many years went by. He’s a great person and player, one of the few people in this world that I call my brother”, he touched on once again about the 27-year-old Panathinaikos player.
Averaging 14.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game in this year’s EuroLeague, there might be the NBA in Dinos Mitoglou’s future. “The sky’s the limit for him. I’m sure if he keeps this up, he will have a decision to make, whether to stay home or to leave. I think right now it’s important he continues to have a good year, finishing it well after not playing, and keeping doing what he’s doing. Whatever it’s meant for him, he will get there”, Codi Miller-McIntyre finally added about him.
Talking about players who took the spotlight in Greek teams, Sasha Vezenkov took the whole EuroLeague by storm in the 2022-23 season, before heading to the Sacramento Kings. When he was still one of the most dominant players in Europe with Olympiacos, he also crossed paths with the American native playmaker.
Debuting with the Bulgarian national team in the 2025 FIBA EuroBasket Pre-Qualifiers, Codi Miller-McIntyre had a big impact on the team, but without the 28-year-old point forward they would have never gotten to the next stage, trying to get the ticket for the competition by facing Germany, Montenegro, and Sweden.
Playing alongside him for two games, he soon realized how big of a deal he was. “Sasha [Vezenkov] first and foremost is a great person. I was a little bit nervous playing for the Bulgarian national team, but he was very open and kind, telling me to just play my game and not worry about making sure he got the ball. He told me to express myself and I think we ended up playing really well together”, he said.
In the 90-82 win over Portugal, when they played together for Bulgaria, the team’s leader had an absurd 30-point night, destroying the opponents. “It was crazy to see, he was on fire and I didn’t even want to shoot the ball. I was like “This dude is playing insane right now”. It was amazing to see how much love he gets in his country and the amount of people who came to see him chant his name. He’s extremely humbled about it”, he added before making a comparison between him and Panathinaikos’ own.
“What I love about both Dinos [Mitoglou] and Sasha [Vezenkov] is their mentality and work ethic. It’s the reason why Sasha was so good at Olympiacos and why now he’s in the NBA. The same thing applies to Dinos [Mitoglou]: there’s a reason why he’s performing like this right now. It’s years of consistent work. I know Dinos more, so I’ve seen him more closely when he came to America as a kid up until now: this doesn’t surprise me at all”, he finally commented on the two dominant forwards.
Not the usual “I’m in the EuroLeague” paths you’d expect
To get to an International stage as a naturalized player and be a starter in the EuroLeague, everybody would think Codi Miller McIntyre’s experience has been all going up, never slowing down. Instead, in an interview he released in 2018 he expressed what drives him. “My thing is more about longevity. Where can I be in 10 years? How can I keep improving my game? I think each year I’m taking that step up and becoming more confident”, he said on that occasion.
When he spoke like that, he was coming off his first two seasons overseas, first in Belgium and then in Russia. With the Leuven Bears, he dominated with 17.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game. “During my first year in Belgium, around January I met Joerik [Michiels], who helped me basketball-wise, and Olivier [Goetgeluck], who helped the mental side of my game. I used to wake up at 4:30 in the morning, drive one hour to Antwerp, working out with them for one hour and a half, and then drive back to my city, where I had two workouts [with Leuven Bears]. I used to also have a strength and conditioning coach I’d go see at 7:00 or 8:00 AM before our team’s workout”, he said.
In the following season with Parma Perm, it was a natural consequence with 16.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 8.0 assists per game in the VTB League. “Next year in Russia I used to wake up early and we had a great assistant coach named Daniel [Mayer Sokolovsky] there: we would meet one hour before practice, and just go through a lot of drills together. We worked out before and after to the point where our head coach ended up making everyone come before to work out and train”, he emphasized again.
During that 2017-18 season, when he also taught English to little Russian basketball fans, he made a video that describes him perfectly. “One of my closest friends from Russia sent me a video we made during my second year in Europe, around five or six years ago. The video is about the fact that today is not that important, what we’re working for is for tomorrow, next week, next month, one year. Whatever, later. It was crazy for him to send me that video after one of my good games this season in the EuroLeague. That’s what it’s all about”, he commented about it.
So many years invested in Europe.. it’s going to pay off, it has to pay off..
— Codi Miller-McIntyre (@CMMPatience) February 3, 2022
After such a showcase, somebody would expect him to go up even more. Instead, after a decent Summer League with the Toronto Raptors and an opportunity on the edge with the Dallas Mavericks, he ended up playing in the G-League with the Texas Legends, eventually returning to Russia, where with Zenit Saint Petersburg he had 5.8 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 5.6 assists in his first EuroCup season.
That was one of his first setbacks, one of many. “If you follow my career from college until now, it hasn’t been easy. It’s been extremely tough. There have been moments in which I thought about quitting and stopping. My consistent work ethic is what got me here: those failures are just temporary losses, and I wake up every day being consistent”, the 29-year-old expressed about ups and downs.
“When I went to Zenit, I flew Joerik out to me for maybe nine of ten days: we were working out twice a day on top of what I was doing for the team. Every year it was something like that. In Turkey, I had a great assistant coach, and we would meet before practice to work on form, shooting, different crossovers, and moves. If I missed a certain shot during the game, I had to maximize it in the next two practices. The same thing in Andorra, working on the shooting gun by myself a lot. Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve done it. That’s what ultimately led to being ready for this opportunity“, he said.
In the meantime, he became a regular figure in EuroCup, touching the sky and falling down afterward with Zenit Saint Petersburg, Cedevita Olimpija, Partizan Belgrade, and JL Bourg-en-Bresse. The 2021-22 season with MoraBanc Andorra is the perfect resume: semifinalist in the EuroCup by beating an established team like Gran Canaria, but relegated to the Spanish second division.
In the 2022-23 season, he decided to join what was the most anticipated team to watch in the FIBA Europe Cup. Alongside standout players for the competition like Damyean Dotson, John Egbunu, Olivier Hanlan, Conner Frankamp, and Leyton Hammonds, everybody bet on Gaziantep to be on top at the end of the road. However, the opportunity to succeed turned into a nightmare for Codi Miller-McIntyre.
From quitting in the summer to shining with Baskonia
Starting the season 3-0 in the European competition, things started to be problematic as time passed by, with the outburst coming on February 6. An eventful and shattering earthquake devastated Turkey, with the epicenter being only 37 km (23 mi) west-northwest of Gaziantep.
It was the second-largest ever for magnitude in the country’s history and forced the team to move away from the area, obviously. “At that time we were one place out of the playoff picture, and then we had to remove all the way to Istanbul. After we made that move it was just straight downhill from there, we were playing in an empty gym every single week like it was a constant away game”, he recalled.
At that moment, the team was 8-3 in the First and Second Round of the Regular Season, having to play the last game of the group stage on the road in Germany. After that, however, the American players – therefore the vast majority of the team – flew home, as the future was unknown for the red-and-black Turkish team.
Coming back in March to play the Quarter-Finals against Anwil Wloclawek, they won Game 1 on the road, but failed apart in Game 2, losing by a points differential. “We would have gone far in the Europe Cup, but everything changed. Everybody just flew home to America after the major earthquake, we didn’t know if the season was going to continue for us, but then we flew back. Within a week max, we had a game and we weren’t prepared for it. Mentally and physically we weren’t ready”, he said.
The aftermath was an eventful summer, with one of those sliding doors that can change one player’s career forever. “After all that happened, once summer approached, I told my agent I needed to take care of myself mentally. “I’m done”, I said. “It’s been a struggle, I’m working and working but nothing is paying off”. For seven years I was working, but my agent told me to keep trusting him”, Codi Miller-McIntyre revealed, mentioning he would have not been here maybe if Baskonia didn’t call.
When asked about people being surprised by the Basque team actually choosing him to start the season in the point guard position, he keeps it clear. “Everybody thought this. It’s not surprising. If I’m a fan, if I’m from the outside looking in I would consider the same thing, I would think the same way because obviously in the EuroLeague one of the biggest things you want to see is big names. That’s what attracts people. As a player, I understand that”, the 29-year-old playmaker admitted.
However, things were happening behind the scenes. “But what people also don’t see it’s the situations I’ve been in and the amount of work I’ve been putting in. Without anybody seeing, without Instagram, social media seeing it. All of that goes into how I ended up here and why I’m doing this for my first year in the EuroLeague. And that’s for any player: as long as you consistently work out, no matter how things are doing, trying to have a positive mindset about it, at some point, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. It may take seven years in my case, I turned 29 this year and it’s my first one in the EuroLeague. It’s taking years to get here”, he added.
Now, after experiencing a difficult start to the 2023-24 season, his first one in the EuroLeague, Codi Miller-McIntyre has captured eyes’ attention all over Europe with consistency and wide versatility in his arsenal. Averaging 8.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 6.1 assists, and 1.1 steals per game, he may not have all the spotlight on him, but he’s the perfect gear to make Baskonia’s machine work.
Alongside Chima Moneke and Markus Howard, he’s part of an electric, dynamic, and upper-gun trio, enriched by what other valuable assets like Tadas Sedekerskis bring to the table, all contributing to a current 9-7 record after starting the EuroLeague season 1-4. “The entire team, especially with us three, we are so different: personality-wise, playing-wise”, he commented.
However, things have been working really well since Dusko Ivanovic came back on the team’s bench for his 4th tenure with the team. “But somehow we’re making it mash together, and it’s happening because we all understand where each player wants to be, and we all understand that we won’t get there unless everybody pulls their own weight”, the Wake Forest alumni added.
It’s no news that he identifies himself a lot with wolves, as he said in the past: “I call myself The Wolf. I always had a strong attraction to having a dog, like many people, and then I realized that my natural personality is not good for on a basketball court because I’m not too aggressive, I’m passive, and I kind of just go with the flow sometimes. Maybe I want to change something, but I don’t change it. I realized that to play this sport at a high level, you have to have some type of very strong aggression consistently”.
If he’s the wolf, then Baskonia is a wolfback. “If you look at wolves, they’re not the strongest animals out there. But together they are extremely deadly: that’s kinda what the picture meant. Individually, by ourselves, we can do a lot, but sticking together no matter what, after a loss or a win, a tough practice, or an argument, staying by each other side, it’s gonna hopefully put us in a great situation at the end of the year”, he finally commented to end the exclusive interview with Eurohoops.
The icing on the cake hasn’t been put yet, but Codi Miller-McIntyre has come a long way. A difficult one, that brought him to the EuroLeague when the word “unexperienced” can’t be linked to the player he is right now. Leading Baskonia’s wolfpack after almost entering the retirement door. That’s everything.
Happy birthday King @Chimdogg_ 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/Zuvm7APckj
— Codi Miller-McIntyre (@CMMPatience) December 24, 2023
PHOTO CREDIT: Baskonia