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Fred VanVleet reconnects with Wichita State basketball super fan before Raptors' NBA game

Wichita Eagle - 2/7/2023

Feb. 7—Seven years after graduating from Wichita State, Fred VanVleet is still managing to make Shocker fans' dreams come true.

Before the Toronto Raptors' road game at Memphis on Sunday, VanVleet reconnected with life-long WSU fan Daxton Miller, a Wichita native and former Special Olympics gold medalist who was a fixture around the Shockers' team during VanVleet's time in Wichita.

A family friend of Miller's reached out to the WSU men's basketball program to inquire about the possibility of setting up a pre-game meeting with VanVleet. Ryan Hillard, the program's special assistant, reached out to VanVleet's marketing director to run it by the former Shocker and when he gave it his blessing, Hillard confirmed it through Toronto's staff.

VanVleet was more than happy to chat with the Shocker superfan and pose for a picture with Miller, who was wearing a red VanVleet Raptors jersey.

"Dax has had challenges in life, but he's never let them slow him down," Hillard said. "When you're around him, he's just got this smile and laugh that are infectious. It just makes you want to be around him. He's a positive attitude and a joy to be around, which is why it was easy for our guys to gravitate towards him. I knew once it got to Fred that it was about Dax, he would all for it. I'm pretty sure Dax will never forget about this."

Former WSU graduate assistant Kellen Marshall, the son of former WSU head coach Gregg Marshall, tweeted about the interaction on Monday evening with VanVleet responding on Twitter with "My boy (heart)."

Miller had been around the program long before the Marshalls arrived in 2007, but Kellen said his impact on the players and coaches was immense.

He laughed when recalling times in practice when Miller would shoot with the players after practice and make five or six 3-pointers in a row.

"Dax has this infectious energy about him and that's why everyone loves him," Marshall told The Eagle. "There was one time I asked him, 'Dax, what do you do if you're not feeling happy?' He said, 'I just smile. And then I'm happy.'

"The guys loved that kind of energy. He has this laugh that makes you laugh and guys like Fred did a great job of always making sure to include him when he was around. They always asked questions and showed genuine care and I think that meant the world to him."

Miller was deprived of oxygen at birth, which left him mentally disabled. At age 5, doctors told his family that he was never going to be able to throw a ball.

But the Wichita native did much more than that.

When he was still in high school at Wichita East, Miller won a gold medal in tennis at the 1995 Special Olympic World Games at age 16. He was the youngest person ever to qualify for the World Games and won all nine of his matches, including a victory over a 30-year-old in the championship match.

Miller has since moved to St. Louis, where he drives his own car and works a job. He was a fixture at the Arch Madness tournaments when WSU was still in the Missouri Valley Conference and still makes it back to a game at Koch Arena occasionally.

Continuing the tradition, current WSU coach Isaac Brown has invited Miller to team practice, where he has been able to interact with a new crop of Shocker players.

But no player could ever compare to VanVleet, who is still going out of his way to make sure to include Miller.

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