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| Miller's Retirement Sparks Memories of Clutch Play Pacers' Leading Scorer Holds NBA Records for 3-Pointers Made, Attempted By TOM DAVIES, AP INDIANAPOLIS (Feb. 11) - Reggie Miller, the NBA's most prolific 3-point shooter, will retire at the end of the season and is ruling out any possibility of a comeback. Miller, who will turn 40 this summer, had hinted all season that this would be his last, but he didn't make it official until after the Pacers' 91-83 loss to Houston on Friday, one night after his sister, Cheryl, broke the news on a TNT telecast. "I really wasn't going to say anything all year... but let's get it over and move on," Miller said. "I believe it's time. I've always said when I felt this organization and franchise and the players were able to take the next step it would be time for me to move on." This is Miller's 18th season - all with Indiana - since he was a first-round draft pick out of UCLA in 1987. "The younger players are able to carry this franchise," he said. "This is the time for me to move on and the other guys to step into the light." Miller said he knows his last chance for an NBA championship may have ended that night in Detroit when Ron Artest charged into the stands and triggered a free-for-all with fans. "What happened in Detroit gave me a little more motivation to work harder because I knew we were going to be short-handed," he said. "But I'm not going to let this year ruin 17 others that have been fantastic. Another thing, this isn't a death sentence. We're still in the playoffs and we still can beat a lot of other teams." He said his decision is final. "I have a few projects in the works, but right now we have 33 games left and that's my focus," Miller said. "There's no Michael Jordan thing going on, nothing like that." Miller's shooting and his ability to "flop" - drawing contact and falling as he releases the ball, almost guaranteeing a trip to the free throw line - infuriated opposing players but also won their respect. "He's a guy that when I played against him I wanted to smack him," said former Knicks great Patrick Ewing, now an assistant coach with Houston. "But all I can do is take my hat off to him. He was one of the purest shooters to play the game." One of Reggie's most memorable performances came against Ewing and the Knicks in the 1995 Eastern Conference playoffs, when he turned a 6-point New York lead into a 107-105 Pacers victory by scoring eight points in 8.9 seconds, stunning the partisan crowd in Madison Square Garden. He's regarded as a villain by many New York fans, even now, but he still gets their grudging admiration. "They respect him. Whatever he's done, they still respect him," Ewing said. "We had our wars, but he is a competitor." The battles against the Knicks provided many of the high-pressure shots Miller hit on his way to setting the NBA record for 3-pointers. He hit three long-range shots and scored 11 points Friday night against the Rockets, giving him career totals of 2,508 3-pointers and 24,696 points - 119 points behind Ewing for 13th on the NBA scoring list. And it all came after Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh faced a cascade of boos when he selected Miller with the 11th pick in the draft. Many fans wanted the Pacers to draft Steve Alford, who had just led Indiana University to the NCAA championship. "He turned out to be a great player, and you never quite know that," Walsh said. "I was pretty confident that we had done the right thing." Miller called Pacers coach Rick Carlisle on Thursday to tell him of his decision. "When you have an announcement like this, it gets your attention and makes you swallow hard," Carlisle said. "It adds extra meaning to these 33 games." The closest Miller has come to a championship was in 2000, when the Pacers lost to the Lakers in six games in the NBA Finals. He jumped into national prominence six years earlier, when he scored 25 fourth-quarter points in an Eastern Conference finals victory over the host Knicks while trading words with movie director Spike Lee at courtside. He made five All-Star teams and averaged at least 18 points a game for 12 consecutive seasons through 2000-01. The Pacers were considered a championship contender going into this season. But several injuries, including a broken hand that forced Miller to miss 16 games to open the season, and the long suspensions of three starters after the November brawl with Detroit fans have left the Pacers below .500 and fighting to make the playoffs. 02/11/05 22:50 EST |