Michael Jordan went off against Reggie Miller in the latter’s rookie season after Miller questioned MJ’s greatness.
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By the time Michael Jordan had reached merely his 4th season in the NBA, he had established himself as a top-tier offensive threat in the league. Coming off of a season where he averaged 37.1 points on less than 30 shots a game, Jordan was clearly approaching ‘best player in the world’ status with guys like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson slowing down.
Reggie Miller on the other hand, was a rookie coming into the 1987-88 season, drafted 11th overall by the Indiana Pacers out of UCLA. Despite him being lauded as one of the greatest 3-point marksmen of all time, Miller never averaged more than 5.7 shots from beyond in a season of his career and this number would come in his 14th year.
Of course, Miller wasn’t the superstar Michael Jordan was during his rookie season as he would start merely 1 game in the 82 total games he played in 1987-88. However, going up against the man Larry Bird called ‘Jesus in disguise’ would be a challenge that would be difficult to back down from.
Michael Jordan proved just how good he was against Reggie Miller.
Reggie Miller was fired up to go against Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls. Two guys who came into the league along with Reggie that would help shape the 90s were Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant, both of whom were cornerstones in Bulls 3-peats.
In episode 9 of ‘The Last Dance’, Reggie Miller breaks down what transpired while going up against MJ in his first game against the Bulls.
“I remember I had 10 points at half and MJ didn’t shoot the ball particularly great so I was like ‘Yea, you’re Michael Jordan? The guy who walks on water?’ Second half, I ended up with two points so I had 12 for the game and he ended up with a lot more.”
While this is quite the interesting story, there are a few inconsistencies here. Well, the biggest one is that the first game played between the Pacers and the Bulls in 1987 saw the Bulls lose 110-111 with Jordan scoring 37 but Miller scoring 20, not 12. There is no instance where Jordan scored 37 and Miller scored 12 in the same game in the latter’s rookie season.
