Reggie Miller spent his entire career with the Indiana Pacers and is regarded by many as the greatest player in franchise history.
After 18 seasons with the team, Miller decided to retire in 2005 and he explained how he knew it was time for him to walk away after the Malice at the Palace.
“That was the time when I knew it was time for me to retire,” Miller said regarding the infamous brawl between the Pacers and the Detroit Pistons. “It was a much younger game. The respect level of it had left I thought and at that point in time I didn’t tell anyone, but I knew in my mind that it was time for me to retire. Maybe for the first time, Basketball wasn’t enjoyable for me and the maturity level wasn’t the same. Trying to teach them respect, to be on time, and to go over the playbooks. They didn’t want to have any parts of that. They just wanted to have fun. A lot of these younger players just wanted to show up and it frustrated me.”
By that stage of his career, Miller had taken on more of a mentorship role for the Pacers but he realized his message wasn’t getting across to the team. The youngsters weren’t as serious about the game as he was, and the Malice at the Palace ended up being the final straw for him.
The Malice at the Palace in 2004 remains one of the darkest moments in the NBA since the turn of the century. At first, the Pacers and Pistons got into a brawl after Ben Wallace shoved Ron Artest. As Artest lay on the scorer’s table, a fan threw a cup of beer at him which enraged the Pacers forward and he charged toward the fan who he believed had thrown that cup. Some of his teammates followed him into the stands, and everything went haywire as we witnessed the most infamous brawl in NBA history. Miller, who wasn’t playing due to an injury, tried to get things in order, but the situation had gotten completely out of hand, and he realized it was time for him to retire.
Reggie Miller’s NBA Career
Miller would finish his career with averages of 18.2 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 3.0 APG, and 1.1 SPG while shooting 39.5% from beyond the arc. He held the record for most three-pointers made at the time of his retirement with 2,560 and was named into the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team as well.
An NBA title would end up eluding Miller, but he did get close a few times. He and the Pacers made it to the NBA Finals in 2000, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games. They made it to the Conference Finals on five other occasions as well and were the only team to take Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls to a Game 7 during their second three-peat. Despite never winning a title, Miller made his mark on the league and served as an inspiration to the likes of Stephen Curry, who called him his favorite player growing up.
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