Welcome to LWOS Basketball department’s “NBA Time Traveler Series,” the column that imagines which retired player from an NBA franchise one would most want to travel back in time to see them play again in their prime. The LWOS Basketball department will review each of the 30 NBA franchises and which retired player would be their “NBA Time Traveler Player.”
Be sure to bookmark the site and follow us on Twitter. Last Word On Sports is your headquarters for everything hoops. For a complete listing of all our NBA Time Traveler Player Articles click here.
Time Travel to See Reggie Miller Play for the Indiana Pacers Again
Although Reggie Miller is infamous for a couple of different shortcomings during his NBA career – namely, never winning a championship and being on the wrong side of one of the most remarkable plays in NBA playoff history – Miller had more iconic playoff moments than anybody not named Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or LeBron James in the last 25 years. Even though he was never in the same tier as those players, Miller still managed to come through for his team, year in and year out, and in crucial moments of critical games.
Most people roughly know Miller’s accolades – second most made three pointers in NBA history; 18 years playing, most as a star and some as a rotation player, for the Pacers; 15 postseason appearances; and five All-Star appearances. But what’s more important are the things that can’t be seen as easily. Miller was one of the most durable players ever, which he showed by playing at least 70 games in every season but two, with one of them being the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. But the actually amazing part about Miller’s durability was how hard he worked during all of those games. When Miller played, he proved to have better stamina than almost anyone. Ask any player that had to defend Miller in his heyday – constantly chasing Miller off screens, possession after possession, couldn’t have been fun. If Reggie was ever tired, his defender was exhausted.
Beyond everything else, though, Miller was known for his unbelievable knack to take and make monumental shots. “Clutch” is usually just a narrative that fans create about certain players (cough, LeBron, cough), with very small sample sizes to support it. People love to make entire arguments about a player based on whether he is “clutch” or not, without defining any parameters for it.
With that said, Reggie Miller was everything you need to know about clutch. He had the confidence to take the biggest shot of the biggest game of the season, and he came through for Indiana countless times. Miller had the swagger, confidence, and yes, extreme arrogance needed to almost always find a way to get it done in tight games.
There’s a reason that the last few minutes of close games involving the Pacers were nicknamed “Miller Time” for so long. Miller famously pushed off Michael Jordan himself before hitting the game winning three against the Bulls in the 1998 Conference Finals, the series in which Chicago got closer to losing than any other series throughout the Bulls six championship runs. Another great example of Miller’s late-game heroics came near the end of his career, when Miller tied a 2002 playoff game against the Nets twice – once with a three at the fourth quarter buzzer, and again with a dunk in overtime.
Even more incredible was perhaps Miller’s most memorable moment as a player, one that no Knicks or Pacers fan will ever forget. There’s a 30 for 30 documentary that featured the moment prominently and there’s even a Pacers fan website named after it. Of course, I’m referring to Reggie Miller scoring eight points in nine seconds in a sequence that has only been comparable to one other since.
Even then, Miller’s performance came in a game far more important than the latter one. Miller would simply go out and shoot the ball, without worrying about what the aftermath would be, how much pressure he was under, and all of the things that usually make players nervous. It payed off, and as everyone now knows, only one thing comes up on a Google search of “Reggie Miller choke”.
There’s still somewhat of a debate among NBA fans about who had the better career – Reggie Miller or Ray Allen. Personally, I’m a fan of Allen, and I’d have to say that Allen’s prime and his career edge Reggie just a bit. Miller may have been miscast as the primary guy – if he had played with another star, who would still concede the crunch time shots to Miller, then maybe the Pacers would have won a title or two with Reggie.
Perhaps if Miller had switched places with Allen, into an era where the NBA record for total three point attempts among all players is broken every year, Miller would be remembered as undoubtedly the better player. Maybe if Miller had played for just one team resembling Allen’s 2007-08 Celtics, he would have won that elusive ring. But the winner of this comparison is irrelevant. Without Reggie Miller, there wouldn’t be a Ray Allen. That’s the only legacy that Miller needs.
Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler via Getty Images Sport
