6/22/2020 9:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
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Miller-Moore's mom was shot 10 months after dad's death
By: By Paul Coro
The energy on the court and the happiness on campus will be evident to those watching Sean Miller-Moore at Grand Canyon this year.
Miller's ability to keep both going is more remarkable than any statistical line he will give GCU.
Another Father's Day was a reminder of losing his dad, Shawn, to lung cancer when he was 5 years old.
The day after Father's Day marks the 16th anniversary of his dad's death, a staggering moment that unfortunately did not stand alone. Ten months later, his mother, Livvette, was fatally shot when he was 6.
Miller-Moore's grandmother, Idene, and aunt, Cassandra, stepped up to raise him, his two brothers and a sister in Toronto. That enabled Miller-Moore to become the first member of a family of Jamaican immigrants to earn an associate degree two years ago.
Now a transfer from Oregon State, Miller-Moore has much more to prove in basketball as a high-flying, 6-foot-5 Lopes senior and more to accomplish in pursuite of a sociology degree.
"I really have a lot of people depending on me," Miller-Moore said with Canadian and Jamaican accents. "I feel like there's a lot of unfinished business with it. I want to go all the way with it. I don't want to be settling. There's always room for improvement. We don't live in a good neighborhood back in Toronto. I want to put my family in a new house. My grandma is 74 so I want her to enjoy her time."
Sean Miller-Moore, 5, (far right)
with his parents and siblings.
Miller-Moore does not have many memories of his parents, other than being part of their wedding shortly before his father was diagnosed with lung cancer and died weeks later.
His mother was distraught and rarely left home until a friend held a private birthday party at a Toronto nightclub 10 months later. She called her mother, Idene, at 2 a.m. when she noticed her keys were locked in her car and before she returned to the club for help.
Outsiders slipped into the venue and targeted others with shots amid 200 people. Seven people were shot. Only Miller-Moore's 26-year-old mother died due to a gunshot to the head when an assailant aimed for someone else in the crowd.
"It was chaos in the household but my grandma raised me for the rest of my life," Miller-Moore said. "When I was 6, I was on top of the world and invincible. I was too young to understand. It really hit me when I was in the eighth grade because I was old enough to understand."
He played sports but favored volleyball and soccer. He also tried football, hockey and badminton before finding basketball in eighth grade. Miller-Moore was growing up amid a Toronto basketball boom and became hooked on hoops by 10th grade.
Growing up without parents was the only life he knew but reminders of the tragedy came at teacher conferences or with family financial struggles. Forms, scholarship papers, visas and bills became his responsibilities to chase his hoop dream.
Miller-Moore found a comfort zone at Moberly Area Community College in rural northern Missouri, where he averaged 18.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists on a 29-7 team that reached the 2019 national tournament's round of 32.
Last season at Oregon State, his playing time plummeted to 8.8 minutes per game, in which he remained productive with averages of 2.7 points and 1.9 rebounds per game and a field goal percentage of 67.9%. That clip would have ranked second in the nation had he met statistical minimum for attempts.
Miller-Moore largely stuck to slashing, filling fastbreak lanes and crashing the boards offensively for the Beavers but he is anxious to show a more diverse game as a Lope.
"Sean is a very electrifying player who plays well above the rim," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "He will bring much-needed experience to our team and be able to help us from Day 1. Possessing great length, he should help our rebounding and defense immediately."
After arriving on campus in Phoenix this month, Miller-Moore already feels like GCU was his destiny. His conversations with Drew make him eager to move ahead as his sister and older brother work and his younger brother also plays college basketball at Lambton in Sarnia, Ontario.
"I'm ready to take it by storm," Miller-Moore said. "I know it's going to be a great year for me.
"It gets overwhelming but it's definitely been worth it. I learned to be strong-minded. I don't think my parents would want me to weep over them being gone. I know they don't want me to sit around here crying because they're gone. There are times when I'm sad. It hits me when I see other people have something that I don't. But I know they want me to do my best."
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