Reggie Miller, the Oscar-worthy NBA trash talker, has no regrets: 'I said it? I meant it'

INDIANAPOLIS -- The on-court scuffles, worthy of newspaper headlines and ESPN highlights, would play out on the stage of the NBA and, in the middle of it all, was a brilliant actor. His name was Reggie Miller, a gangly, skinny Indiana Pacers player with a vicious, competitive bite.

For seemingly no reason at all, depending on who you talk to, Michael Jordan once came at Miller and grabbed him around the neck. John Starks once hit Miller with a headbutt out of nowhere for absolutely no reason at all, depending on who you talk to.

Kathy Jordan, who was in charge of Pacers player development at the time, would watch from the sidelines and shake her head. She knew if she asked Miller after the game what had happened or what he had said, he would give her those puppy dog eyes, drop his head and say, "Me? I didn't say anything. I don't know what got into him."

Miller would tell her those players must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed or that they must have been mad about something else and completely took it out on him. Miller never had any idea what had gotten into his opponents.

Kathy Jordan always knew exactly what had gotten into Miller's opponents. His ever-effusive mouth.

"Reggie was usually quite discreet in his comments. You only knew by the other players' reactions, he got under their skin," she said. "Reggie was the good guy with an impish alter ego and that never should be underestimated."

In his 18 years with the Pacers, Miller was known as a diabolical NBA trash talker, but that really doesn't come close to encompassing all the covert things Miller did on the court.

Sure, he mouthed off quietly, and not so quietly, in the ears of his opponents. But he elbowed them, too, and he shoved them, most of the time mysteriously avoiding the eyes of the referees.

Miller taunted opposing players and fans -- and, notoriously, Spike Lee -- with choke signs. He pointed fingers in their faces. And he verbally provoked Starks into that head butt that got Starks ejected from Game 3 of the 1993 Eastern Conference playoffs and left Miller in agonizing pain with an innocent look on his face.

What did I do? he pleaded with the crowd. Miller was the victim again.

When Michael Jordan chased Miller down the court to accost him in February 1993 after Miller rebounded a missed shot and laid it in, TV announcers were bewildered. "What in the world ignited this?" they said, as a replay was shown.

Donnie Walsh, Pacers general manager at the time, knew exactly what had ignited it.

"Michael Jordan had been hitting Reggie with elbows, so Reggie came down the court, made the shot and kind of pushed Jordan," Walsh told IndyStar. "Next thing I knew, Jordan had his hands around Reggie's neck. He got Jordan so mad that he went off."

The two ended up center court in a face-to-face confrontation that ended with teammates and coaches rushing toward them to break up the fight.

"Reggie was one of the toughest guys. Even though he was skinny, and he was wiry, he never backed down," Dale Davis, who played for the Pacers from 1991 to 2000, told IndyStar. "He was a lot tougher than a lot of folks gave him credit for."

That was the brilliance of Miller, a California-bred, UCLA standout-turned diehard Hoosier who became every NBA opponent's scrawny, bratty, annoying little brother. But much to those opponents' dismay, Miller was the younger brother who could beat the big boys. And so, naturally, he mouthed off.

In the world of NBA trash talkers, Miller ranks near the top. If not for Larry Bird and Eddie Johnson, Miller might be No. 1, said LaSalle Thompson, who played with Miller from 1989 to 1995.

"Because Reggie's thin, people thought Reggie was kind of a punk and he's not," Thompson told IndyStar. "I don't know how well Reggie can fight, but he isn't afraid. Instead of fighting, he used trash talk."

But after the talk, when Miller was retaliated against for his verbal attacks, he became an Oscar-worthy actor.

"That John Starks (headbutt) wasn't really a hard hit," Thompson said, "but Reggie acted like he had to go to the hospital."

Or, as longtime Pacers fan Rohn Harris puts it, "He goaded John Starks into the headbutt and then acted like Starks actually killed him." Miller fell backward and flailed his arms.

Miller, a hall of famer who played his entire career for the Pacers, is now a 58-year-old game analyst for TNT. His days of trash talking have long passed. But in his X bio, Miller makes sure people don't forget. "Best known for 3-pointers and trash talking," it reads.

When IndyStar asked Miller for his favorite trash talking moment, he laughed and then said, "It was all of them." Because, in Miller's recollection, he always came out on top.

"I pretty much have always had the last word. Do I regret any of them?" Miller said, taking a long, dramatic pause, really thinking about that question.

"No, I don't. I said it? I meant it."

'He made them so mad, they had to fight back'

All these years later, nearly 20 years since Miller retired from the Pacers, Walsh wants people to know that the Miller on the basketball court wasn't the real Reggie Miller. The real Reggie Miller was "a quiet, laid-back kid, a nice kid," said Walsh.

"If you meet him on a normal day, not putting him on stage, he’s totally different," Walsh said. "But on the court, all of a sudden, he comes out."

When Miller came onto the NBA scene as a rookie in 1987, he quickly started making waves. He might have looked physically unassuming, but he was beating players off picks, driving for baskets, and he was destroying teams at the 3-point line.

"They started taking a look at Reggie and said, 'We can't stop him. We’ve got to rough him up,'" said Walsh. "Reggie's only defense was he had to get under their skin. And he made them so mad, they had to fight back."

Miller was a feisty player who always forced opposing teams to look over their shoulders, said Thompson. He didn't just use his mouth. He used his elbows and shoulders, and he was smart about it. He knew just how far to take things, sometimes pushing the limits. He knew he had protectors, after all.

"If someone would rough him up, Reggie would tell me, Dale or Antonio (Davis)," said Thompson. "We would back him up. We made it clear. 'Leave Reggie alone.'"

That usually worked. Thompson's nickname in the NBA was Tank. At 6-10 and 245 pounds, he would watch Miller trash talk an opposing player, infuriating him, and Thompson would sidle up to that player and say with a dose of intimidation, "That's my guy."

Davis was also a fierce protector of Miller.

"Dale looked ferocious. LaSalle could be ferocious," said Walsh. "Nobody fooled with those two guys." Opponents soon learned they couldn't fool with Miller, either, with or without Thompson and Davis. Miller was the real deal.

"Reggie talked and then he backed it up," Davis said. "So, what could they say?"

Reggie Miller: 'I made it personal'

Throughout his career, Miller was a clutch, game-winning shooter, a five-time NBA All-Star and a fierce advocate for his Indiana Pacers. All those unsavory things Miller did on the court, he said, were for a very good reason.

"I was never going to let anyone say anything bad about my teammates, about my city and about my state," Miller told IndyStar. "So that's why I made it personal with a few teams, because you're not going to disparage Indiana, my Pacers or any of my teammates."

Miller may have been West Coast bred, but when he came to Indiana, he embraced the Hoosier hysteria and made fans fall in love with him.

"(I) never met an athlete who understood his fan base better than Reggie Miller," said Mac Engel, sports columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "He was from L.A., but he totally got what it meant to be from Indiana."

That devotion to Miller's newfound home state came to a pinnacle when the Pacers became serious NBA competitors, battling it out with the Bulls, the Celtics, the Lakers and the Knicks.

"He loved being the underdog and beating teams the experts said that we shouldn't beat," said Walsh. "He loved the fact that Indiana was put up as a contender."

Miller's most famous trash talk, taunting moment of his career came in the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals in June 1994 at Madison Square Garden, when he put his hands around his neck, signifying that the Knicks had "choked. Miller had scored 39 points in the Pacers 93-86 win over the Knicks.

"We just didn't know anything about Reggie when he got here in 1987, but when his game evolved, so did his personality and his brashness and his ability to walk the talk," said Bill Benner, who covered Miller's career as a sports columnist for IndyStar. "That certainly manifested itself for the first time on the national, global stage with the whole Spike Lee thing."

Miller's choke sign incited Lee, a Hollywood filmmaker and diehard Knicks fan, who menaced Miller from his front row seats at Madison Square Garden, gaining national attention and an ongoing rivalry. "Reggie's personality really came to the forefront," said Benner.

And so did his intelligence. Benner would cover those Pacers games as Miller taunted and heckled opponents and he soon realized that the trash talking was Miller's source of motivation.

"He fed off of that. That was his trigger. That's what got him going," said Benner. "But it wouldn't have meant anything if he hadn't had the talent and the bravado to back it up. It's one thing to talk it, it's another thing to do it."

The ingenious thing about Miller was, he would do all that stuff on the court, say all those things on the court, and then downplay it after, Benner said.

At the post-game press conferences, Miller was always an innocent player who had gotten swept away in an unsavory situation. And people kind of believed that.

Miller was the nicest, kindest, most welcoming, friendly guy at Pacers practices and out in the community.

"The trash talk, it was only something he did on the court as part of his performance," said Benner. "It was his internal trigger, what got him going."

And it was what catapulted him to NBA greatness. Miller's talk was simply a segue to preview what he could do on the court.

"I considered myself someone," Miller said, "who always had to have the last say."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Pacers Reggie Miller, the NBA trash talker with no regrets