We know that some of the former NBA players on TNT are very passionate about things outside of their sport. Charles Barkley has always expressed his love for golf, while Shaquille O’Neal likes to DJ around the world in his free time. Barkley, in fact, has openly stated during broadcasts that he can’t wait for the playoffs to get over so he can get to play golf and fish every day.
While Barkley’s obsession with golf is very well known at this point, it turns out another former star on the network is even more obsessed with a passion of his, and that happens to be Reggie Miller. Miller has become a force in Mountain Biking, and during an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he stated that he is more obsessed with it than Barkley is with golf. He even confessed that he thinks about racing when he’s calling games as a broadcaster.
Q. Your colleague Charles Barkley has joked about obsessing over golf while he’s in the middle of the NBA playoffs. Do you do the same with cycling?
A. My obsession is probably a little bit more. There’d be times during a game, that I’m actually calling a game, that I could be drifting off a little bit. I’m constantly thinking about: When is my next race? When is my next training block?
Miller also stated during the interview that he wants to play a part in furthering the sport and was named to the board of directors of USA Cycling last year. He hopes to make it more inclusive for people from all backgrounds, and that is a fine goal that he is working towards at the moment.
While it is great that Miller has found something outside of basketball that he is so passionate about, his bosses at TNT probably won’t be too happy to hear that it is distracting him from calling games!
