Who is Tom McMillen, the ex-NBA player mentioned in the Epstein files?

The question that hit podcaster Pablo Torre is asked most often is about Jeffrey Epstein. The investigate journalist gave fans what they wanted.

Torre has published fantastic reporting about Bill Belichick and his girlfriend Jordan Hudson, a scandal involving Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers, the NFL and the NFLPA, as well as gambling in the NBA.

But his latest episode is directly about Epstein and his connection to former NBA player Tom McMillen, who represented the United States in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

The big man played at the University of Maryland and was selected No. 9 overall in the 1974 NBA Draft before enjoying a career longer than a decade in the pros.

Following his basketball career, he was a politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1987 until 1993. The former Congressman was also Chair of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports from 1993 until 1997.

He was teammates with Bill Bradley, a former U.S. Senator for New Jersey, on the New York Knicks.

The former Maryland standout, who was arguably the best high school basketball player in the country at the same time as Bill Walton in 1970, agreed to interview with Torre before eventually canceling and then rescheduling the conversation.

McMillen was seen in a video unearthed by NBC News that featured him near Epstein and future President Donald J. Trump. For what it is worth, Trump and former NBA commissioner David Stern were both early donors to McMillen's campaign.

Here is more reporting from 2019 (via Washington Post):

"In November 1992, when NBC filmed the party at Mar-a-Lago for a feature on Trump’s bachelor lifestyle, McMillen was a Maryland congressman who had just lost his bid for a fourth term, a victim of unfavorable redistricting. Trump was a big and early contributor to McMillen’s political pursuits, which the Democrat launched after an 11-year National Basketball Association career.

McMillen continued to travel in political circles after leaving Congress, chairing the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition and doing a stint as a regent of the University System of Maryland. Last year, he was on the university’s commission investigating the heat-related death of football player Jordan McNair. He heads Lead1 Association, an organization of college athletic directors that advocates against proposals to pay collegiate athletes who are on scholarship.

The NBC video shows McMillen and a companion entering the party at Trump’s Florida estate at the same time as Epstein, a well-connected multimillionaire who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution and was charged last month with trafficking dozens of underage girls.The footage offered a counterpoint to Trump’s claim that he and Epstein were never close."

As of 2024, per Sports Business Journal, McMillen was no longer the head of Lead1 Association.

Meanwhile, according to Washington Post, his name is included in Epstein's "black book" and the entry had "at least six ways" to contact McMillen.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Who is Tom McMillen, the ex-NBA player mentioned in the Epstein files?