“I don’t really dislike anybody in the league, but playing Reggie Miller drives me nuts.” In 1998, Michael Jordan described how it played against Miller. Even the player-turned-analyst had a similar discomfort playing against the 6x NBA Champion. Throughout their career, they had a love-hate relationship which the Pacers legend described recently. So, being considered on a list that featured MJ, Miller felt grateful.

In the latest ‘Mount Rushmore’ list from ClutchPoints, all the traditional 5 positions had 3 players. The fans had to express their 4th player on the list. Reggie Miller, who was effective as a shooting guard, got the raffle and won his ticket to the list. The top 3 players for SG Mount Rushmore were Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Dwyane Wade. To express his gratitude, Miller wrote, “To even be pictured here, I’m Honored.”

He was part of the list, alongside some greats like Ray Allen, James Harden, and Allen Iverson, amongst others. The Pacers legend even added a few emoticons to describe his excitement, “👍🏾🤘🏾💪🏾✊🏾👌🏾🤙🏾.” And it was also on social media a few days ago, when the 5x All-Star described his love-hate relationship with Michael Jordan.

“No Lies Told!! We had a prickly relationship, respected the hell out of MJ, but also couldn’t stand him. The reason I say that, wanted to beat him and his Bulls so badly, only won a few battles but he eventually won all the wars.” The Instagram post was a compilation of Reggie Miller’s speech, where he spoke about His Airness. One part was from the HOF induction and the second was from the Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2015.

During his appearance on Kimmel, the 18-year veteran shared his rookie year experience against MJ. During the exhibition game, Reggie Miller scored 10 points and MJ had 4 at halftime. This prompted the Pacers legend to trash-talk the Bulls legend, “You’re Michael Jordan? The guy who walks on water?” Jordan, being Jordan, ended the game with a total of 44 and Miller could only add 2 more to his first-half tally.

Despite the love-hate relationship, Reggie Miller was a fan of Michael Jordan

During their careers, they crossed paths 56 times and MJ dominated not only the scoring but wins, as well. The Bulls legend averaged 29.8 points and had a win percentage of 64% against Reggie Miller. Even the Pacers legend tried to match Michael Jordan, however, ended up with a healthy average of 18.9 points.

In an interview with Dan Patrick in 2021, the 5x All-Star also explained how he got signed memorabilia from MJ. The interesting part is that Jordan never realized it was for Reggie Miller. “You think I asked for that? Hell no!…”

He continued, “One of the people who worked for the Pacers wanted one. And they said, ‘Hey, I’ll get two if you put a word in.’ I said I’m not putting a word in so I sent a ball boy down to the Bulls locker room to say ‘Hey, there’s a friend of Reg on the Pacers that would love your autographs. He and his friend wanted to know if you’d sign these too.'”

On the Dan Patrick Show, the Pacers legend revealed, “I was the friend! He didn’t think Reggie wanted the jersey.” So, despite their battles and trash talk on the court, both developed an immense respect for one another. That’s why Reggie Miller cherished the honor alongside the Bulls legend, as he cherished other memories.