Indiana Pacers legend Reggie Miller entered the 2000 NBA Finals with lessons from his 1999 NBA Playoffs campaign. A year before they booked a ticket to basketball’s biggest stage to face the Los Angeles Lakers, the Pacers were in a tense battle in the Eastern Conference Finals against their archrivals, the New York Knicks.
Lessons from the past
Miller and company were eliminated in six games, and the sharpshooter pinpointed critical errors in their approach. After looking at himself in the mirror, Miller realized he was too kind to the Knicks. This mindset eventually contributed to their downfall.
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“Last year, I didn’t have that fire going against New York,” Miller said in 2000, via the Los Angeles Times. “I never talked trash. I gave them all the respect and I think that killed my game, personally.”
“In years past, I hated New York. Last year, for some reason, I didn’t hate them because I thought it was going to be easy, to tell you the truth,” he added.
This overconfidence burned Miller in the 1999 Eastern Conference Finals. He averaged just 16.2 points on 36.3 percent shooting in six games against the Knicks. The Pacers were poised to be the best team in the NBA after the Michael Jordan era. Unfortunately, they failed to meet these expectations.
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Combat against the Lakers
Against the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal-led Lakers, Miller was trying to find a way to motivate himself quickly. He performed horribly in Game 1 of the 2000 NBA Finals and was looking to bounce back. He merely saw the Lakers as a team blocking their way. Miller wanted to find a bigger motivation to oust the Phil Jackson-coached squad.
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“I don’t have any bad feelings about L.A.,” Miller said ahead of Game 2 against the Lakers. “But you know, you need that extra motivation… something to get you ticked off. I think I’ve created that myself by going one for 16 in Game 1 of my first-ever NBA finals.”
“So I’m more upset with myself now. Now I got to contend with myself, which is kind of scary, if you can believe that,” he continued.
Whatever preparation Uncle Reg did after Game 1 did not work. The Lakers snagged the Larry O’Brien trophy after beating the Pacers in six games. The 2000 NBA Finals is most remembered as the birth of a great dynasty in Tinseltown. But for Miller, it signified his failures as a leader. From the looks of it, his greatest mistake was his incapacity to move on from his horrible Game 1 performance.
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“If I would have played well and we still lost, that still would have gave the rest of the guys hope,” Miller said. “It’s all mental. I played great rest of the series, but to me, that Game 1 just haunts me. I should have been better in that Game 1 just to put something on Kobe’s and Shaq’s mind. And I didn’t. It just bugs me.”
Miller never got over his slump. The following year, the Pacers finished with a mediocre 41-41 record and were eliminated in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers.
The closest they would come to the NBA Finals was their back-to-back Conference Semifinals appearances in 2004 and 2005. By then, Miller was ageing and the team had undergone so many changes. Miller would go on to retire without winning a chip.
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This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 6, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.