Master P is a big advocate for HBCUs–though he's an even bigger advocate for his children. For this reason, he's standing by his 19-year-son, Hercy Miller, and his decision to leave Tennessee State University.
Earlier this year, Miller committed to Tennessee State's basketball team, memorably choosing the TSU Tigers over other high-profile universities like Howard, UCLA, Arizona State, and LSU.
However, a significant issue arose at the beginning of the basketball season. During Tennessee State's first game against Alabama A&M, Miller sustained a hip injury. Later, the athlete allegedly received "an improper diagnosis" that jeopardized his playing career.
Specifically, Miller was cleared about four days after his injury and went on to play in other matches. However, a second opinion proved that the situation was more difficult than anticipated.
"The specialist said if we would have waited any longer, he probably wouldn't have been able to play basketball anymore because next his ACL was going to go out and all other kinds of injuries," Master P explained.
Hercy Miller has entered the transfer portal, the portal told @stadium.
Miller is the son of Master P. He played 3 games this season as a freshman guard at Tennessee State, averaged 3 points in 11 minutes per game.
He also signed a $2 million NIL deal with Web Apps America.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) December 7, 2021
According to the rapper, this was a direct result of Tennessee State not having proper medical resources due to underfunding–prompting him and his son to seek a more prominent university instead.
"That's when I said I have to bring awareness to what's going on at all these HBCUs: underfunding with no resources," Master P said. "I'm going to be with all the HBCU programs to bring awareness to this, but I'm not going to sacrifice my son's career and his future."
"How can we help HBCUs if we're going to sugarcoat the truth?" he asked. "Then we are failing the next generation."
Master P also noted that Miller would be interested in going back to Tennessee State "if they got the right funding and resources and doctors and nutrition like all the rest of the state-funded schools."
"We've got a great program at Tennessee State. We've got great people [and] we loved the culture–we just don't have enough trainers," he stated. "We don't have enough medical people to take care of what needs to be taken care of."
"We don't have the technology that the Dukes and all these major universities have. An injury like this could have been prevented," he said.
However, Trevor Searcy–TSU's director of sports medicine–denies Master P's accusations that the HBCU is underfunded.
"The issue is not that we're underfunded at all; it's actually the opposite," Searcy said. "The issue is that since [athletics director Mikki Allen] has been here, we've been growing, and when you grow, your facilities have to grow as well. And that's what we're in the process of doing now."
