Sports
Back in ‘87, I was doing a weekly sports show on a small FM station out of Bloomington, Indiana. I remember our post-NBA draft show, just after the Pacers had picked Miller. In those days, pro basketball wasn’t even considered basketball in Indiana. The Pacers were an abysmal joke, especially in Bloomington, where IU ruled the college basketball world in ‘87. IU coach Bob (God) Knight was openly derisive toward pro basketball in general, and the Pacers in particular (it seems that the Pacers hadn’t treated Quinn Buckner with the respect God thought he deserved at some point, or that’s how the story goes, anyway). The supposedly basketball-savvy hoosier state considered the Pacers brain trust, led by Donnie Walsh, to be idiots, and drafting Miller over Steve (Son-of-God) Alford was all the confirmation they needed. Now, Dave Brown (my co-host on this little sports show) and I both claimed that this was an astute choice: the Pacers needed an outside shooter to open up the inside for Herb Williams and Chuck Person to work. The ‘87 draft appeared thin, and Miller seemed to be as good a choice as any . . . and better than Alford, who may have been an excellent shooter, but was too small and too slow to consistently get his shot off in the pros. We figured that Miller would be a decent third option, averaging somewhere between 10 and 15 points a game, with the ability to occasionally explode like all good shooters do. In spite of the vitriol pouring in over the phone lines, we stuck to our guns: Miller was better than Alford. We had plenty of chances over the next few years to congratulate ourselves for our insight (Miller got better every game while Alford collected splinters in Dallas); but, if I could have reached Mr. Brown on the phone the other night, we would have had to admit that we didn’t get it much more right than anybody else. I suspect that even Donnie Walsh, now recognized as a basketball genius, didn’t think Reggie would turn out to be a Hall-of-Famer.
The 1987 draft will put three players into the Hall of Fame: David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, and Miller. There were some other good players in that draft as well: Kevin Johnson, Horace Grant, Kenny Smith, Reggie Lewis, and a couple guys who put in some time on the Pacers, Mark Jackson and Derrick McKey. Hoosier fans probably would have wanted any of those other guys before Miller (Walsh came very close to picking Jackson over Miller). As good as all of these players were, none of them had the impact on their franchises that Miller did.
As a matter of fact, no one, EVER, has been as important to a NBA franchise as Reggie Miller. No one. Ever. Listen to me as I say this, and let me lay down the facts for all to see: I dare you to deny my claim, to posit some player, any player, who has built their team like Reggie built the Pacers.
Larry Bird in Boston? I think not. He may have resurrected the Celtics back to their glory days, but that’s part of the point: the Celtics had glory days. What about Cousy, Russell, and Havlicek? What about Dave Cowens? Bird was truly one of the greatest Celtics, but he had a lot of company.
Magic Johnson in LA? Same deal. To make him the star of the franchise, you have to ignore Wilt and The Logo. . . and, back when the Lakers were in Minneapolis, George Mikan (who gets my vote for the most important Laker). And, fer chrissakes, he was playing with Worthy and Jabbar . . . he may not have even been the most important person on that team.
Stockton and Malone in Utah? Now we’re warming up a little, since the Jazz had a very similar trajectory to the Pacers. The problem is this: when these guys split, the team tanked, in spite of having one of the best coaches around in Jerry Sloan. They left no foundation. Besides, there were two of them.
Jordan in Chicago? Robinson in San Antonio? Now we’re talkin’ . . . Jordan made the Bulls into one of the greatest teams in the history of American sports at the same time he was solidifying his status as the greatest baller of all time. Jordan has six championship rings, Miller has none. And, the Bulls didn’t have much of a history pre-Jordan . . . while they fielded a competitive lineup in the early ‘70’s featuring Jerry Sloan, Chet Walker, and Bob Love (Q: Who is the Bull’s second all-time leading scorer? A: Bob Love.), they never made a serious impression. Yes, Jordan is the Bulls. But, when he left for the final time, everything went to hell. You can’t blame that all on Jordan (it’s Jerry Krause’s fault, for the most part), but the Bulls are only now starting to recover from the mess, thanks to GM John Paxson and coach Scott Skiles. Blame game aside, Jordan left his house in a mess. And, given the enormity of Jordan’s ego and his involvement in every aspect of the Bull’s operations, implicit or explicit, he does bear some responsibility.