NBA legend, Sam Perkins has had the distinction of playing college hoops with the University of North Carolina with Michael Jordan and being teammates with Reggie Miller as a member of the Indiana Pacers.
Both Jordan and Miller were iconic to NBA Basketball particularly in the 90s.
MJ, a 2009 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee left an indelible mark on the NBA with six NBA Championships and six Finals Finals MVPs.
His Airness also appeared in 14 NBA All-Star games, earned 10 scoring titles, five regular season MVP awards, and is a member of the Hall of Fame Class of 2009.
Miller, a 2012 Naismith Hall of Famer was a five-time NBA All-Star,three-time All-NBA recipient and the Indiana Pacer will forever be known as a Knick Killer.
If you’re tardy to the party: Google Reggie Miller’s 8 points in 9 seconds heroics in the NBA Playoffs.
With all of their accomplishments during their career, one has to wonder, what are Reggie and MJ like when they’re preparing for the game?
How competitive are they?
“They wanted to beat everyone,” Sam Perkins told me on the Scoop B & Reg Podcast.
“That challenged him [MJ] and Reggie was like that too.”
Perkins says that while Reggie and MJ were both competitve, there’s one major difference: Reggie Miller would psych himself out before games.
Reggie Miller attends the welterweight unification championship bout on May 2, 2015 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
“I played with Magic [Johnson] and Michael [Jordan], but I’ve never seen [anyone] do some of the things to prepare themselves for the game [that Reggie did], Perkins tells Scoop B & Reg.
“Reggie was a villain everywhere we went on the road, I think we went to Philly and they vilified him to the point that you did not want to come out there and play. He came and wanted to see that and Reggie loves that grit and dirty grind. He prepares himself for all of that and goes back at them [the fans]. When he did the choke sign in New York in Spike Lee’s direction’ I think he lives for that and Michael does too. That’s the kind of people they are and he [Reggie] does not get credit for it because he has been overshadowed by Michael and all of his greatness.”
For reference: Sam Perkins was the fourth pick in the the 1984 NBA Draft.
Big Smooth was also USA Basketball’s Male Athlete of the Year that same year and spent 17 years in the NBA with notable stints with the Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and the Seattle Super Sonics.
Perk averaged 11 points and 6 rebounds during his career and had solid roles during a couple of NBA Finals appearances with the Lakers, Sonics and the Pacers.
Simply put: Perkins is the epitome of a stretch big man before it became popular this decade.