“If you want to be a hero, you’ve got to take hero shots.”  Nobody lived that line better than Reggie Miller. In the Michael Jordan era, if you could push His Airness to the brink like forcing a Game 7 in the 1998 Conference Finals and nearly breaking up the Bulls’ dynasty, then you are not just an ordinary player. Sure, a championship ring has always been elusive to him, but his step-back three became the blueprint for a generation of shooters. But do you know who actually pushed Reggie to turn that shot into his signature move?

Reggie Miller’s been a household name in Indiana for decades. He is a Hall of Famer with a resume long enough that you’ll need 10 minutes just to skim through his Wikipedia page. But there’s one thing that’s always slipped through his fingers: a championship ring. And it still stings. As Miller admitted, “It will always haunt me not winning a chip.” But if there’s one thing that keeps his name alive in NBA history, it’s that filthy step-back three-pointer. Those 2,560 career points from deep still lock him in as one of the top three three-point shooters ever.

Miller’s never been shy about giving credit where it’s due. He’s openly admitted he picked up that step-back trick from Kiki VanDeWeghe at UCLA. But the real push came from inside the Miller household. His sister, Cheryl Miller, yes, the 2× NCAA champ and Hall of Famer, pushed Reggie to turn that move into his own. Imagine growing up with two Hall of Famers under one roof.  But going up against Cheryl wasn’t a casual backyard shootaround. As she once said, “Because I was always in his face. So he would almost, it would almost click.” So once that ball was up, it was war. And those battles made Reggie the cold-blooded shooter we remember today.

On the All The Smoke podcast, Reggie broke it down perfectly, how that step-back and funky hand movement really came to life. “She was 3-4 inches taller than I was, trying to get over her,” Miller said. And what happened next? “Boom.” Blocked. Every time. So Reggie adapted. “I would step back further,” he added. “I started a high arc because I wasn’t strong enough. And for some reason, I crossed my hands. That’s how it started. I kept moving further back.” And just like that, a legend was born. That step-back approach turned Miller into one of the deadliest three-point snipers ever.

“Why is this generation making it seem like the step back shot is just coming in because you’ve been doing it forever?” And well, like Stack Jack put it, it wasn’t the first time at all for Reggie either. And he gave credit where it was due. But that cross-hand click release? Yeah, that was one of a kind for sure.

Well, the step-back shot didn’t just stay with Reggie. It passed down through generations, eventually, in the current league, and landed in the hands of Steph Curry. But before Steph started cooking from deep with that step-back, there was another assassin in town.

The name of the Black Mamba is high and mighty when it comes to the step-back shots. But did you know that Kobe Bryant learned it from the best, from Reggie Miller himself?

Reggie Miller passed the Step-Back Torch to Kobe, only to watch the Mamba keep all the smoke for himself

Back in 2020, when Kobe left us and the whole basketball world broke down, every single soul felt it. From bitter rivals to best friends, everybody. Because after Michael Jordan, no one had the guts, grit, and that stone-cold killer gene quite like Kobe Bryant. And you know those moments when defenders tried locking him on the sidelines? Most guys panic there. But not Kobe. He’d just drop a cold-blooded three like it was nothing. But that shot, the step-back dagger, he learned it from Reggie Miller.

On The Dan Patrick Show in 2020, Miller told this hilarious, peak-Kobe story while remembering him. The two were filming an episode of The Real World (yes, really) and during downtime, Kobe walks up like, “’Well show me that step back move,'”  Reggie, being cool, goes,“Ok, I’ll show you that step back move if you show me that crossover, because I always loved his crossovers.”

Then Miller walks him through the step-back, what to read on a defender, where to create space, the whole bag. Reggie continued, “And I was like, ‘So show me that crossover, and he’s like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Never showed me the crossover.”

And to be honest, that’s why Kobe was different. He was a competitive maniac in the best way. You can almost forgive young Reggie for not realizing what kind of basketball psychopath he was dealing with. That day Miller learned the lesson in hard way – don’t give your signature move to a future killer.