Back in the ‘90s, if there was one guy you didn’t want to mess with on the court, it was Michael Jordan. The Chicago Bulls star wasn’t just the best player in the league—he was a force of nature. Opponents feared that icy glare, the trash talk, and most of all, the way he’d light you up for 40 just because he could. Every dribble, every stare, and every dunk felt personal when you were up against MJ. But then came Pacers legend Reggie Miller.
Unlike most, the Indiana Pacers sharpshooter didn’t flinch. In fact, he leaned in. Miller lived for the pressure, earning the nickname “Miller Time” for a reason. He had a gift for nailing those last-second shots, and an even bigger talent for getting under people’s skin—especially Jordan’s. Their 1993 clash was peak intensity, with Miller going toe-to-toe with MJ and refusing to back down.
Reggie is now dropping wild stories about trolling Jordan in the most unexpected way. Yes. you heard that right. Reggie Miller, messing with the one person the whole NBA league feared to go up against. On the All the Smoke podcast, Miller confessed to using the $6.4 billion Jordan brand to get in Jordan’s head. “Could not wear Jordans when Mike was at his superpowers and when he was with the Bulls and all that. Only Mike wore Jordans, I believe,” Miller said. So naturally, he broke that rule just to mess with him—“I knew it would be an irk for him.”
And it worked. “So during a couple of times, maybe one game or two, when he was with the Bulls, I wore him in the game just to irk him because I just wanted to f— with him a little-bit,” Reggie added. But it didn’t come without consequences. “I heard it later on from, you know, ‘hey, you cannot be wearing Air Jordans at all.’” Eventually, Nike made that call. “Someone Nike called, and I was like, I ain’t tripping, I just wanted to do it for that game. I’m not going to be wearing them all the time,” Miller said.
Funny enough, while Nike got pissed, that antics actually earned Reggie an offer from none other than Jordan brand. “But then the people called and was like, hey, you want to be part of Jordan Brand? You look good in them. And I’m like s—. All right.” Not bad for a guy who once caught a punch from MJ for his antics. This ironic turn of events underscores the respect, albeit grudging at times, that existed between the two fierce competitors.
Michael Jordan once threw three punches at Reggie Miller
It’s no secret that Reggie Miller had a knack for getting under people’s skin, but with Michael Jordan, he took it to another level. Their back-and-forth was legendary, but there was one game at Market Square Arena that went completely off the rails. While shoving and scuffles weren’t rare in that era, what shocked Miller was how he got ejected while “His Airness” got to stay in the game.
Then again, things did get heated fast. “I was like, ‘All right, tip-in, got you—now I’m going straight to him, let him know.’ Okay, I had to hurry up and turn around because I didn’t want him to come and like chokehold me,” Miller recalled on All The Smoke. “So I’m like, ‘Okay.’ We both get into it—we get into this—he scrapes my eye. Like I can’t see. He was trying to scratch it.”
What happened next felt even wilder. “Look at this scratch. Scratched the crap out of me. Look at this big hand! But look, I’m holding him and controlling him—I’m like, ‘Okay, but you ain’t going anywhere,’” he said. The refs and players jumped in, but Reggie assumed they’d both get tossed. Instead, MJ stayed, and Reggie hit the showers early.
“MJ threw three punches on the road and didn’t get kicked out the game. That’s crazy,” host Stephen Jackson said. Miller got hit with a one-game suspension. Jordan? Three games—but not that night. He even dropped 45 before walking off like nothing happened.
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