Reggie Miller Was Surprisingly Reasonable About How He’d Fare Against NBA Stars Right Now

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Retired NBA players are often the worst when trying to evaluate themselves against athletes from the current era. Oscar Robertson, Charles Barkley and others have taken heat for certain observations, and on Friday, Reggie Miller was given the opportunity to embarrass himself to some degree during a visit to The Dan Patrick Show.

Miller, however, was quite reasonable, and that surprised many in the basketball world.

Among the highlights were Miller indicating, “I don’t know if I could hold my own, but I wouldn’t embarrass myself,” with regard to playing competitive basketball right now against NBA-level players. Within the interview, he did reference a laundry list of players within the Big 3 universe that he would be able to score on right now. That list included Moochie Norris, Mike James, Kwame Brown, Rashad McCants and Reggie Evans, with a tongue-in-cheek reference to Evans’ physical play.

With regard to more obscure players (like the ones above), it often comes down to who is in better shape, and Miller repeatedly referenced his age of 51 throughout the interview. When it came to the stars of today, Reggie quickly ran from the topic of anything to do with Kawhi Leonard, presumably out of fear. Later, Miller indicated that he would “have a hard time stopping” James Harden and, after some nudging, relented that Harden “probably” could hold him down defensively right now.

Hilariously, the most aggressive part of the interview just might have come from Dan Patrick when he said, “I think I could score on Steph Curry… if you gave me 10 shots.” We’ll have to respectfully disagree on that point, but Miller did a surprisingly reasonable job of talking about his game when compared to today’s brand of NBA (or even Big 3) players.

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