What could’ve been? When bodybuilding careers begin with much hype but end soon thereafter, questions haunt us. Chris Cook and Desmond Miller won the NPC Nationals two years apart yet never stood on the same stage. Though both were heralded as possible Olympia contenders, each was a pro for only two years, and neither flexed on the O stage.
When Cook won the NPC Nationals in 2004, the 28-year-old Californian had abundant legs and delts. His chest was shallow, and he wasn’t HD, but he sported a superb structure. He barely missed an Olympia qualification in his 2005 pro debut, but his conditioning was murky in subsequent shows. He last posed in 2006 before pursuing a finance career. That same year, New Yorker Desmond Miller shocked the muscle world when he beat favorite Evan Centopani to win the NPC Nationals. His shoulders and back lagged, but his legs were among the world’s best. He qualified for the Olympia in his rookie season (and beat Kai Greene and Branch Warren) but chose to forgo the O. Smoothness dropped his placings in 2008. After a lengthy hospitalization for pneumonia, Miller retired—leaving us all to wonder, as with Cook’s too-brief career, what could’ve been.
