Harold Miner

Miner attended USC from 1989 until 1992. As a junior in what would be his final season with the team, Miner's play earned him Sports Illustrated magazine's selection as the college basketball player of the year over such notable candidates as Christian Laettner, Shaquille O'Neal, and Alonzo Mourning. Miner led the USC Trojans men's basketball team to the second seed of the Midwest region in the 1992 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. The Trojans were upset in the second round, however, falling on one of the most famous baskets in the tournament's history — a three-pointer at the buzzer by James Forrest of Georgia Tech, known as the "The Miracle in Milwaukee."

Miner won the NBA's Slam Dunk Contest twice, in 1993 and 1995. In the 1995 contest, Miner defeated Isaiah Rider, who had won the previous year, solidifying Miner as one of the game's best dunkers. However, his playing career proved unremarkable and failed to live up to the high expectations with which it began. Despite his dunking prowess, Miner did not get much playing time from Heat coaches, Kevin Loughery and Alvin Gentry.

After the 1994–95 season, Miner was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. He averaged only 3.2 points and 7.2 minutes per game for the Cavaliers. On October 18, 1995, he was traded to the Toronto Raptors for Victor Alexander, but that trade was rescinded four days later when Alexander failed his physical. Miner played five scoreless minutes in his last NBA game, a 26-point loss to the Chicago Bulls on February 20, 1996.

As of 2011, Miner had settled in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was married with two children. He said that he had wisely invested the money he had earned in salary and endorsements during his playing career, allowing him to remain a stay-at-home father, rather than needing to seek employment. Over most of the time since his retirement from basketball, he had been disinclined to give interviews or make public appearances, instead remaining private and largely inaccessible. In 2010, however, he agreed to an interview in which he indicated a desire to begin reconnecting with the University of Southern California and with some of his acquaintances from his playing days.

In 2011, Miner appeared at the Pacific-10 Men's Basketball Tournament, to be inducted into that conference's basketball Hall of Honor, and indicated he planned to attend the retirement of his jersey by USC later that year. He would later attend the retirement of his jersey by USC during half time of the game against UCLA on January 15, 2012. Miner tied his previous seclusion largely to his disappointment with his professional career. Explaining his public reemergence, he said, "I guess I feel like I'm over it now. I've kind of purged my system and come to a point of accepting what happened with my career: that I wasn't able to live up to my own personal expectations."