If anything fueled Kobe Bryant‘s much-talked-about work ethic, it was his ability to learn quickly. However, this ability often turned out to be a bane for his opponents. And Indiana Pacers icon Reggie Miller once faced something similar with the 5x NBA champ. Appearing on his former teammate Mark Jackson’s podcast, Miller revealed how the Black Mamba had once asked him about his step back move in which, going to the left, he would pull back and create separation.

Kobe’s desire to be like MJ was evident from his early days in the league. And that is where Miller, who lost to MJ’s Chicago Bulls multiple times in the 90s, came in. “I did show him a couple MJ (Michael Jordan) moves in the post and all that… Lo-and-behold, fast forward three years later, who we meet in the NBA Finals,” Miller recalled on The Mark Jackson Show. And it was none other than Kobe Bryant himself against Reggie Miller’s Pacers in the 2000 NBA Finals.

The Los Angeles Lakers were already leading 2-1 in the series, with both teams defending their home court. Game 4 was on the Pacers’ home court, and went to OT. However, Shaquille O’Neal fouled out early in the overtime, which put the Pacers at advantage. “We got this. We had no answer for Shaq. Thank God,” Miller recollected his feelings from the game. Little did the Pacers know Kobe had different plans for the day.

“That **** caramel cat (Kobe) not only used the moves that I showed him on the step back and how to guard MJ in the post… He used all those moves versus Jack (Mark Jackson) and I in that overtime to win that game and go up 3-1,” Miller said on the show. Notably, this instance of the Black Mamba asking about Millers’s moves, as stated by the Pacers legend himself, had occurred when the two of them were filming for MTV’s Real World. Even Kobe had once spoken of the instance that helped him against Miller in the 2000 NBA Finals. 

Playing 1v1 against Miller let Kobe Bryant figure out a lot    

During a one-on-one interview, the 5x NBA champ had mentioned the time he met Miller for filming a show at UCLA the summer before the 2000 NBA Finals. “I said, ‘OK, they’ve got a really good team. We might see these guys.’ And I said, ‘Let’s play one-on-one,” Kobe recalled. 

He further mentioned that the 1v1 helped him really measure Miller and see what he liked to do defensively. “See where he moves, see where he was weak at and what I could exploit. So when that happened and the Finals were here, I knew what I had and knew what I could take,” the Black Mamba stated in his interview. 

The 18x All-Star’s hunch did not betray him as the two met in the 2000 NBA Finals. And his preparedness and will to learn from his opponent paid off with the Lakers winning the series 4-2. As much as Miller may regret letting Kobe Bryant in on his moves, he respects Black Mamba’s learning capability, as stated on the Mark Jackson Show.  

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the Reese-Clark rivalry and more, watch this video.