In 2012, Reggie. Miller was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame with little favor from everyone. Five All-Stars, three three-time three-pointers, the second-highest all-time three-point record holder (later broken by Curry), that's almost all his honor. According to the basketball-reference data algorithm, Miller is only 6.4% likely to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
But he was selected.
But Miller didn't care about the boos of the skeptics, he was used to it, in his own words:
“Reggie has always been an underdog.”
Well.
Reggie. Miller has never been a talented player. In fact, because of the hip muscles, Miller even had problems walking as a child, and the corrective equipment accompanied him for a long time. The family never expected him to achieve anything in sports, and everyone focused on his sister Cheryl. Miller's. Cheryl is an extremely good basketball player, who won the Olympic championship for the national team and has played a single 105-point performance in women's basketball in the United States. When Miller later talked about her love of basketball, her sister was a topic she couldn't avoid. However, no one would have thought that in the one-on-one of his backyard, in order to avoid his sister's defense of the sky, Miller practiced his strange three-point posture.
After graduating from high school, Miller did not receive a few decent offers. "His talent seems to be limited to that one-handed shot" – that's what almost all coaching staff say about him. That's it, Reggie. Miller returned home, went to UCLA, and then left a string of scoring records in a wave of unpromising, ranking second on the UCLA scoring list.
Incidentally, the name that preceded him was Lou. Elsindor, also known as "Sky Hook" Jabbar.
After that, Miller landed in the NBA with the 11th pick in the draft, going to Indiana, a cornfield full of cornfields. On draft day, Miller's parents didn't even know there was an NBA team there. But interestingly, local fans weren't impressed with Miller, complaining that management had foolishly missed Steve Afford of Indiana University in favor of a skinny, skinny guard who would only shoot.
So, under such prejudices, in the 90s, the third grade Reggie. Miller averaged 25 points per game, with 51% + 41% + 87% shooting; In 1992, against the Charlotte Hornets, Miller scored 57 points on 16-of-29, breaking the Pacers' single-game scoring record, and the Pacers won 134-122; In the 1993 regular season, Miller played against Michael. Jordan, the two turned from verbal greetings to fists and kicks combined. After the game, he told reporters in a manifesto: "They are strong, but I am happy to continue to fight"; In the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals, Miller scored eight consecutive points in the final period, setting the first miracle that Maddy was talked about before 35.13 seconds; In the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals, Miller pushed Jordan away from a hit; In 2000, Miller led the team to the finals.
Well, underdog, Miller seems to have always been like this.
His heyday was in the midst of a mixture of 20 superstars or superstars: Jordan, Bird, The Magician, Buckley, Ewing, The Assassin, Moses. Malone, Big Dream, Pippen, Admiral, Postman, Stockton, Shack, Kobe, AI, KG, Duncan, Payton, Nash, Dirk. And any of these guys can easily lock in all-Stars and the best teams at their peak. But in this way, Miller is still embedded in this rank, five times selected as an All-Star, three times selected to the Best Team, hard to chew down - career average of 18.2 points per game, true shooting rate of 61%; He averaged 21 points per game in the playoffs and shot 60 percent from the field.
One more thing, Miller hit 6,237 career free throws, the seventeenth all-time. Career free throw shooting ratio is 40%. No ball, three-pointers, penalty kicks, non-stop running, blocking around cover. It was with these skills that were contrary to that era that Miller contributed 174.4 wins in the regular season of his career, ranking eighteenth in history, suppressing Kobe Bryant. In a meat grinder-style trench attack, lead the Pacers to play the offensive level of the league's top six for many years.
In those years, the Pacers' survival relied on defense, piecemeal mid-range shooting, and the ever-active Miller. On the field, Miller's three-pointer woke up his lifeless teammates like a flag. In a battlefield where everyone is sweating like pulp and golden drums are beating in unison, Reggie. Miller is like a vanguard in the front, proud and persistent in fighting against everything, never backing down.
In 2012, miller killed the Bulls in the 1998 playoffs when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. "Yes, Michael, I pushed you". Miller smiled and said, "But when I saw that you tried this trick against others, I didn't think I was too much." Miller's speech made everyone in the audience, including Jordan, laugh, but in fact, the truly combative people understood how much heartache it takes to tell the painful past as a joke.
The Indiana Pacers, who own Miller, lost all five times in the Eastern Conference Finals 00 years ago, including three times losing the series 3-4. Reggie. Miller never got a championship ring in his life, but his pacers were always like the final hurdle of Eastern Adventures, the brave who blocked those who rushed up to the top stage:
Shaq met him three times in the knockout stages; AI didn't shed his shadow until 2001; Jordan only met him once, but the 1998 battle was unforgettable; Spike. Lee and Patrick Ewing are even more likely to have nightmares now, rolling out of bed and congratulating Reggie in a cold sweat. All that miller duel was a thing of the past with eight seconds and eight minutes.
Miller, on the other hand, has hardly worked with any star players in his career, and his team relies most on no-ball cover, bottom line crossover, quick shots of receiving the ball, defensive communication, accurate grasp of every 24 seconds, these simple but extraordinary tactical thinking and those flood beast-like superstars have been entangled for more than a dozen seasons. Even, at one point on the sidelines, when Indiana's three-million-dollar mansion was set on fire (the culprit has not yet been identified), Miller never left Indiana until he retired.
In 1991, after Jordan won the championship, people said he became the first guard in NBA history to "lead the team to win the championship without a top center" in the history of the NBA. The following year, Drexler also came close to accomplishing this feat. And if it weren't for the shark's immortal existence, Miller would most likely have replicated this feat in 2000. In that era when muscle sticks were towering like mountains, Miller led the team as a pure shooter to block the tide of the tide of the times again and again. The Indiana Walkers stood like a hunting burning flag on the Eastern Battlefield, while Reggie. Miller, the heart of this banner, with those incredible three points and the drive to swim against the current, let the Pacers intersperse the memory of the times and compose a magnificent heroic history song.
Everything, as Miller scored eight points in the final moments of the '95 Eastern Conference Semifinals, "Yes, I saw that the defeat was very close to me, but I just rushed up and pushed it away, and then, I won." 」 ”