Reggie Miller played his entire 18-year NBA career with the Indiana Pacers. In that time, he became one of the most prolific three-point shooters in history. While his teams never won a championship, Miller is considered one of the best players in Pacers history. His number 31 has been retired by the organization. He was recognized as one of the greatest to play the game when he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in September of 2012.
Miller grew up in California. He was one of five siblings and was born into a very athletic family. His brother Darrell is a former Major League Baseball player (catcher for the then California Angels); his sister Tammy played volleyball at Cal State Fullerton; and his older sister Cheryl is also a Hall of Fame basketball player. Cheryl was a member of the 1984 U.S. gold-medal-winning Olympic basketball team and is also an analyst for Turner Sports.
One of the family anecdotes Reggie likes to recall was when Cheryl used to beat him in games of 1-on-1 prior to his professional career. According to Reggie, they quit playing when he could finally block Cheryl’s shots. Miller says his unorthodox shooting style was developed to arc his shot over his sister’s constant shot-blocking. His brother, Saul, Jr., became a musician and followed in his father’s footsteps in military service.
ROAD TO TNT
In August of 2005, Miller announced his plans to join TNT as an NBA analyst and he’s been with the network, more or less, ever since. I say more or less because Miller was tempted at an NBA comeback with the Celtics in 2007.
On August 8, 2007, Celtics GM Danny Ainge and head coach Doc Rivers discussed joining their revamped roster, included Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and team legend Paul Pierce, in a reserve role. He seriously thought about it but a few weeks later, on his 42nd birthday, Miller decided not to attempt the return. He told the Indianapolis Star, “Physically, I know I could have done it. But mentally, when you do something like this, you’ve either got to be all in or all out. And I’ve decided I’m all out.”
At Turner, Miller has handled a variety of roles. Mainly he is a game analyst, working with some of the top play-by-play announcers in the game. He was regularly paired with Marv Albert before his retirement and also had many assignments working alongside Kevin Harlan.
Occasionally, Miller will pop up on the studio show Inside the NBA. His appearances there are not as numerous as they are courtside on the call of a game.
When Turner got involved in the NCAA Tournament broadcasting business, Miller was tabbed as an analyst. He called tournament games for the network from 2011-2019. He was scheduled to work the 2020 tournament, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He did not work in 2021, thanks to the single-site situation, which resulted in streamlined broadcast crews.
FEUDS
Miller is a lightning rod for controversies, misspeaks, bad Tweets and feuds. He is no doubt an opinionated person and hey that’s fine when you’re an analyst that played the game at a high level. But along with those opinions come blowback and replies.
Take for example his Tweet during last year’s Eastern Conference Finals between the Nets and the Bucks after Brooklyn won Game 5. Kevin Durant had one of the greatest performances in NBA Playoff history scoring 49 points, grabbing 17 rebounds and dishing out 10 assists, in 48 minutes. The win gave the Nets a 3-2 lead in the series. For some reason, Miller decided to Tweet after the game. Proving the old adage, think before you hit send.
Nets guard Landry Shamet was even asked about the tweet after the game. He told the New York Daily News, “That would be insane. I don’t know what universe you would even consider just giving a game away in the playoffs. That doesn’t make sense to me.”
If you didn’t know the game of basketball, you’d probably have a hard time believing that Miller actually played the game. His teams would never even think about ‘throwing’ a game to force a game 7. Do you really think the Pacers would lay down if they led the Bulls 3 games to 2 in a series under any circumstance? I don’t think so.
Miller has also had a running “feud” with Spike Lee, the director and Knicks superfan. It dates back to Game 5 of the 1994 Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Miller willed his Pacers to a win by scoring 24 points in the 4th quarter. After every basket, he looked at Lee, who has courtside seats and trash-talked him. Miller gave Lee the choke sign several times as well.
It didn’t come as a surprise when the Hall of Famer took advantage of the opportunity to call Lee out again during a TNT telecast of the playoffs last season. In the dying minutes of Game 5 between the Knicks and the Atlanta Hawks, with the end result all but assured, Lee left his usual courtside seat and headed for the tunnel with just more than three minutes left. Miller, drew attention to Lee’s exit.
“That’s a fair-weather fan right there,” Miller said as cameras showed Lee walking out. “If he wants to be the No. 1 supporter of the Knicks, you’ve got to stay there and take it like the guys on the floor.”
AS AN ANALYST
Miller is not my cup of tea as an analyst. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why, but I have a few thoughts. It probably doesn’t help his case in my mind that I grew up a major Bulls fan.
Putting that aside and the way he felt about my childhood team and the greatest to ever play the game, Michael Jordan, there is still something missing in his analysis. My feeling on that has nothing to do with his playing days.
I don’t always get the impression that Miller is fully prepared for a broadcast. I’m not exactly sure at times, where he’s going with what he’s saying. I can only imagine the stress this puts on his play-by-play partner. You never want to correct someone on the air or question the authenticity of the commentary, so it’s probably difficult to deal with.
Many fans react to hearing that Miller is going to be part of the coverage of their team in a less than favorable manner. Taking to Twitter to inject memes of Michael Scott from The Office putting his face into his hands, or Charles Barkley’s famous ‘Terrible’ complete with the shaking of the head.
Some former players, again some, feel like prep for these games isn’t as important as being the person that played the game. I’ve written about this many times, that just because you played the game, doesn’t necessarily mean you can make it translate to a broadcast.
Miller was a cocky player, that was able to back it up many times. He broadcasts almost like the way he played. It comes across sometimes as arrogant. As if to say, “I know more than you” without much substance to follow.
Yes, you are SUPPOSED to know more than me, you played the game, I didn’t. Instead of talking down to the audience, explain things, teach us something, and make us understand what comes so naturally to you. The smugness I perceive is unappealing.
CONCLUSION
I do appreciate the fact that Miller is willing to say things that others may not be able to get away with. I like how candid he is at times, but there needs to be some substance behind it. Don’t just tell me that you would be able to score 45 points a game under the new NBA rules, tell me why. Sometimes I get the impression a lot of what he’s saying is for effect, to kind of say ‘look at me, look what I can say’. It rings hollow with me and I really feel for the announcers he works with.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
