The Baskonia point guard, nicknamed “The Wolf”, gave fans a night to remember on Thursday.
Codi Miller-McIntyre's special night: 'My teammates really helped me'
In the Basque language, the month of February is known as Otsaila, which translates as the month of wolves. So it was only appropriate that a player nicknamed "The Wolf" would do something special for the Basque Country's only Turkish Airlines EuroLeague team in their final game in the competition this month.
That player is Codi Miller-McIntyre, and his performance on Thursday for Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz against the visiting LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne at Buesa Arena was nothing short of historic.
Two historic feats
Miller-McIntyre had a night to remember with 20 assists to snap the EuroLeague’s all-time single-game mark of 19. The 29-year-old also finished the game with 11 points and 11 rebounds for just the fourth triple-double in EuroLeague history.
“Yeah, I am excited I got it. But my teammates really helped me. They told me to keep going when I got tired. Thank you to them,” said Miller-McIntyre, who broke his previous best of 15 assists midway through the third quarter.
Miller-McIntyre was wheeling and dealing from the get-go.
He assisted on Baskonia’s first five baskets of the game as well as picking up 2 more assists in the first quarter — collecting 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 0 points in the first frame.
The second quarter featured a more than four-minute stretch of Miller-McIntyre assisting on five straight Baskonia baskets. He finished the first half with a tough layup just before the buzzer to give him 2 points and 12 assists.
“Throughout the game, Codi definitely had control of the game. With his rebounding, defense and of course his assisting," said Markus Howard, who paced Baskonia with 18 points. "Just his presence and his command on the court. He was a huge part of why we won. He seemed like he was doing everything out there. We are so fortunate to have a guy like that and be our point guard and be our leader."
Miller-McIntyre assisted on Baskonia’s first two baskets of the second half and tied his previous high of 15 with 5:42 minutes to go in the third quarter. That was the start of three straight assists to push him to 17 assists — his total after three quarters.
While everyone inside Buesa Arena was looking at how many assists Miller-McIntyre had, ASVEL was hoping to maybe steal the game. Mike Scott’s three-pointer trimmed the lead to 5 points with 9 minutes to go.
Miller-McIntyre was not going to let ASVEL ruin his party, though. He hit a three-pointer, moving to just 5 points, and a triple by Matt Costello re-established an 11-point lead. And everybody could get back to the Miller-McIntyre history watch.
Assist number 18 came on a Costello score with 5 minutes to go and Howard converted 3 free throws with 3:48 minutes left to equal history.
More than a minute passed and Baskonia was able to get on the run and Miller-McIntyre set the assist record in style by tossing up an alley-oop pass to Chima Moneke for a big dunk.
One piece of history had been done. But Miller-McIntyre’s teammates wouldn’t let him pass up on the triple-double.
“Yeah, I am excited I got it. But my teammates really helped me. They told me to keep going when I got tired. Thank you to them,” said Miller-McIntyre, who made 2 free throws with 79 seconds left to get to 11 points, 11 rebounds and 20 assists.
Before Thursday night, only two players in EuroLeague history had ever accomplished a triple-double.
Nikola Vujcic twice did it with Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. He collected 11 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists in 2005-06 against Prokom Trefl and followed that with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in 2006-07 versus Olimpija Ljubljana.
The most recent triple-double went to Nick Calathes, who tallied 11 points, 12 rebounds and 18 assists for Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens in 2018-19 against Buducnost.
Miller-McIntyre ended up generating 60 of Baskonia’s 94 points. He scored 11 points himself, assisted on 22 points from two-pointers, 24 from three-pointers and 3 on free throws.
During the post-game press conference, Baskonia head coach Dusko Ivanovic commented that Miller-McIntyre’s performance was just the latest in a season full of outstanding showings.
“Tonight was maybe the culmination, but the whole year he has played excellently,” Ivanovic stated.
Codi Miller-McIntyre, his teammates and the rest of Baskonia fans will never forget what happened in Round 26 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague. After all, it was a performance for the ages.