Reggie Miller predicted the Warriors would lose to the Pacers on Tuesday, and when that didn’t happen it took the Hall of Fame guard all of one day to eat his words.
And he’s chowing down at a rate that would make Joey Chestnut proud.
In the wake of the Warriors winning at Indiana, Miller’s mouth served up a smorgasbord of praise for the Warriors and Stephen Curry, according to an article in The New Yorker magazine.
“They are too good,” the former Pacers great said of the Warriors. “They play the best team basketball.”
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Miller, who spent his entire 18-year career with the Pacers, expressed particular fondness for Curry, perhaps because both belong in the fraternity of exalted long-distance shooters.
Miller, however, noted a visible difference between his game, and that of Michael Jordan, to the style displayed by Curry.
“What made Jordan so great was that he could get the ball way up in the air and finish it,” Miller said. “But you don’t have to dunk to be like Steph. Every kid looks at Steph and thinks: I can shoot and dribble. I can do that.
“You don’t have to be like Mike anymore. You know, Mike was an a------. I was an a------, too. But you don’t have to be an a------ to be successful. Steph is living proof.”
Miller, though, is not quite ready to place Curry among the game’s greatest shooters.
“He still has a lot of chapters to write,” Miller said, “but, right now, you could certainly consider him among the top five shooters of all time.
“The streak that Steph has been on since last season rivals the greats of the game. It’s hard to say he’s better than Larry Bird or he’s better than Steve Kerr, his coach, because those guys did it for much longer.
“But for this short a period he’s in that group. And he keeps improving. If he can beat his own record for most threes in a season, then you’ve got to consider him one of the best ever.”
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Miller ranks No. 2 on the all-time list of 3-pointers made with 2,560. Kerr ranks No. 1 on the all-time list of 3-point shooting percentage, at 45.4 percent. Bird, whose career spanned a period in which 3-points shots were infrequent, is 181st in makes, with 649. His 37.6 percentage ranks 115th all-time.
Curry, 27, and entering his physical prime, ranks 31st on the all-time list for makes (1,310) and his 44.2-percent accuracy ranks right behind Kerr on the all-time list.
Miller understands how Curry has come so far and, moreover, appreciates it.
“I know how hard it is to put time in the lab when no one is around and you’re just working on your craft,” Miller told the magazine. “I understand what (Curry) goes through. For him, what we’re seeing are probably easy shots. You’re shaking your head, though. I am, too.”
