Reggie Miller was one heck of a basketball player who might have shown the path to which other way the game could be played. And he was also one of the biggest trash talkers of all time, maybe the GOAT.
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A big-time 3-point scorer being the star of a team and one of the best players in the league was new for the league at the time. And now that the entire NBA has become a 3-point first league, we remember one of the NBA’s top-75 players, the GOAT of Indiana, as one of the pioneers for the current league.
But there were some other things Reggie did, which, if players of the current generation would still be doing, this era wouldn’t be the softest compared to all the previous ones.
We are talking about talking trash to the opponents, match officials, opponent’s coaches, fans, opponent’s family members, you name it, and Miller has belittled everyone both with his mouth and his game. He didn’t even spare Larry Bird and Michael Jordan, AS A ROOKIE, although regretted it later.
Also read: “Kobe Bryant bet me $50,000 to play him 1v1 but he HAS to guard me!”
But what’s that saying “every dog has a day?”. Well, Reggie had his when one of Hollywood’s deadliest actors was a regular sighting courtside and was buzzing in the Pacers guard’s ear throughout the game.
It was just about the end of the game when he had enough of the beating he was receiving by the Knicks and maybe the bad referring or the trash talk from Samuel as well, but nothing justifies what he did next.
When Samuel L. Jackson ratted Reggie Miller out and Mark Jackson called him O.J. Simpson
On 7th March 2001, the NBA suspended Miller for one game and fined him $10,000 for a gum-throwing incident that occurred with 1:58 left in the Knicks’ blowout victory. Miller had just been taken out of the game by coach Isiah Thomas and was sitting on the bench when he threw the gum at a ref.
The official did not know who threw it. A couple of reporters and some fans saw the whole episode, and MSG Network found it on one of its camera angles later. But as it turned out, Coach Carter himself ratted Reggie out. He told all about the incident on Jimmy Kimmel’s show.
Even some Knicks players had a laugh about the whole incident, as Miller was their biggest rival who always torched them up in the Garden.
“I guess he didn’t like the gum anymore,” Glen Rice said. “Why didn’t he throw it at Isiah? He took him out.”
“He’s like O.J.,” Mark Jackson said. “He said he didn’t do it.”
