Ask this simple question. Who is the one player that Michael Jordan probably hated during his illustrious basketball career? There is no shortage of options. Obvious names like Isaiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer would top the list. There was also John Starks, Gary Payton, and Alonzo Mourning. All deserving candidates for the wars they had with the Chicago Bulls throughout the 1990s.
Yet all those answers would be wrong. Back in 1998, Jordan did a fantastic interview for ESPN The Magazine penned by Chicago reporting legend Rick Telander. In it, he discussed his career. Inevitably the question of which player he hated the most came up. While Jordan made it clear he didn’t truly hate anybody, there was one guy who came close.
“I don’t really dislike anybody in the league, but playing Reggie Miller drives me nuts. … His game is all this flopping-type thing. He weighs only 185 pounds, so you have to be careful, don’t touch him, or it’s a foul. On offense I use all my 215 pounds and just move him out. But he has his hands on you all the time … I just want to beat his hands off because it’s illegal. It irritates me.”
Miller was the perfect antagonist in many ways. Not only is he viewed as arguably the greatest trash talker in NBA history. He’s also one of the greatest shooter. So not only with his yap at you constantly and pull all sorts of nefarious tactics to draw a foul. He’d also hit some enormous clutch shots to steal the game from you. So yeah. It can be totally understood why he found ways to get under Jordan’s skin.
For his part, Miller said the trash-talking wasn’t done out of some perverse pleasure. It was a vital component of his game. While he did stand 6’7, he was spindly at just 175-185 lbs. He was never going to outmuscle guys. So his best hope was to take them out of their games by getting them focused on him and not playing basketball. Jordan wasn’t his only victim. Miller’s antics against the New York Knicks and particularly Starks are legendary.
In the end, Jordan got the last laugh. In their one and only playoff series against each other, the Bulls knocked off the Indiana Pacers in the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals.
