After Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller probably presented some of the toughest challenges to his successor Kobe Bryant following MJ’s second retirement in 1998.
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Miller could have spoiled Bryant and the Lakers’ first championship success in 2000. But was heartbroken and enraged by the failure of his team in the only shot at the championship in his long and otherwise successful NBA career.
Kobe and Shaq stealing the Pacers legend’s only chance of getting a ring led to the shooting guards developing a rivalry whenever they took the court, which built up to their famous fight in 2002.
But that’s not how their relationship was, Miller’s former teammate’s revelation will explain exactly what are we talking about.
Kobe Bryant once challenged Reggie Miller for a one-on-one in the middle of an ad-shoot
Mark Jackson told a story in his appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast, about the duo’s one-on-one game that took place out of nowhere after the future 5x NBA champ asked Miller for a game while shooting a commercial.
“It was Reggie Miller and Kobe Bryant shooting a commercial. During the time of the break of the commercial, Reggie said, Kobe said, let’s play some one-on-one, just get a workout in the middle of the summer. So, he said, cool. They played one-on-one. Reg shoots a jumper, knocks it down, gets the ball back, jabs it jumping, and knocks it down,” Jackson revealed.
Mark then described how Kobe turned his Mamba self on and had the eyes he had in the Finals.
“He looked at Kobe’s eyes, it almost looked like they were back in the finals. Coz Kobe’s thinking, this ain’t chill mode one-on-one, I’m getting ready to go action. And Kobe begins to pull an absolute clinic in the one-on-one against Reggie Miller. It’s just he had only one game.”
Mind you, this was after Kobe’s Lakers had defeated Miller’s Pacers in the Finals. Not the other way around. The competitiveness in that man was unreal. But so was his humility.
Bryant, putting aside his ego, asked Miller to teach him the “jab step jumper”
Reggie might not look like it but one of the NBA’s Top-75 players of all time is 57 years old now and was 14 years older than Bryant. And so irrespective of the animosity between the two on the court, Kobe had respect for the legendary shooter both for his game and seniority.
After doing what he wanted with Reggie, Bryant asked him a question which showed despite having that killer mentality, how small ego he had when it came to learning the game of basketball.
“He then pulls Reggie aside and says, show me how you do that jab step jumper, show me how you come off the screen. So, he has enough competitive drive to battle him in a one-on-one scenario… but say, you have something that I can utilize. I’m not full of myself to think I’m gonna present it and try to learn from it. Ima show you humility,” Jackson told Sharpe.
