I especially loved the way Reggie would blatantly kick out his legs on three pointers. The way he cheated to draw a foul was nothing short of amazing.

Isn't it time for the NFL to start anyway?

"And has there ever been a better clutch shooter than Reggie?"
C'mon. I realize that this is the highest level of popularity that Reggie will ever reach, but statements like that don't hold up. Reggie had some memorable finishes, I enjoyed all of them, but I would put the ball in the hands of Jordan, Bird, or Isiah before Reggie every time, and those are guys that played during his career. It always amazed me that, with Reggie, people only seemed to remember the makes. I can remember quite a few misses, including airballs and forced shots when he had an open teammate. And that happened in big games, and was apparent in both of the series this year, save a couple games. The Madison Square events were legendary, but definitely don't earn him the title as best clutch shooter ever.

I can only think of a handful of shooters in the history of the NBA that I would rather give the ball to with the game on the line. You named two of them, Bird and Jordan. I would probably add Jerry West to that list. Isaiah would be a close call, but if it's an outside shot I'd give the ball to Reggie first. I don't think he's the greatest clutch shooter of all time, but I think he's in the top tier.

I've got to agree with J.P. and J.B. Cougar above. The leg foul thing always bothered me, and I'd definitely take Michael, Larry, Isaiah, Joe Dumars, Chris Mullin and several other contemporaries ahead of him for clutch late game shooting. And let's not even talk defense.

That said, he'll be in the Hall, and should be with his scoring and longevity.

Giacomo brings up a point that his interested me for some time. How heavily does longevity weigh on the greatness of a professional athlete's career? Take a guy like Rickey Henderson or Reggie. Both were really good for a very long time, but I wouldn't consider either of the among the greatest in their sport, and certainly not amongst the top 10.
Is a career like Don Mattingly's, short but extremely productive, more or less impressive than one like Henderson's?

Reggie was great, but we don't think of him with the all-time best. I think that is justified. He didn't have a completely dominant game. He was a 5-time all-star, never 1st team all-NBA. He is among the 2 or 3 best at shooting, though, and I can't see any meaningful debate about that.

Reggie's career three-point shooting percentage is higher than Mullin, Dumars, Isaiah, Jordan, or Bird. Of course everyone remembers the great makes; there were a lot of great makes. By all empirical or emotional measures, he is one of the greatest shooters of all time. Picking a #1 is going to be based on personal prejudice, but Reggie was legit.

Obviously some of Reggie's greatness is directly tied to his longevity. So what? That doesn't make him any less great, as J.P. implies. Call it fate, call it luck, call it karma, call it preparation, but Reggie was a workhorse. Should we extrapolate Mattingly's numbers over a 20-year career to see what he would have done and measure his career on that basis? No way. Part of a man's resume is his longevity and ability to stay relevant through various phases of a career. The player deserves the boost in stats that comes from longevity as a reward for staying healthy and in the game.

So, then, because of Packer's extrapolation clause, we are left to assume that Reggie's career may be in the same league as Bird's, whose career was shortened by injuries, but still managed 3 MVPs and 3 Championships. Right.
Shooting percentage is not as empirical as you may think. Banging around down low, and playing all out defense will tire you down, adversely affecting your jumper(and your free throws). Reggie never dealt with these factors on the same level as the other players you mentioned, which doubtlessly had something to do with his longevity.
I'd trade greatness for longevity anytime.
Reggie career is very similar, and perhaps inferior to (Packer's beloved) Mitch Richmond, though no one mentions him as a "legit" pick and he retired without the fanfare. Reggie was fortunate to have played his entire career in a place where people love basketball and, in the later years, his team was in the spotlight as a contender.

In terms of great players overall, I would not put Reggie into the top tier or probably even into the second tier. In my opinion, the top tier of all time players is a small group - Magic, Bird, Jordan (I think everyone would agree on those three), Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain. Maybe Jerry West and Kareem. The second tier would be guys like Isaiah Thomas, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Julius Erving, etc. I'd probably put Reggie somewhere in the third tier - a hall of famer, but never the best at his position at any time in his career. But as I said, over the course of his career he became one of my favorite players. As Adam said, he was never a first team all-NBA player, but he was an all-star caliber player for 15 years and certainly one of the top 2 or 3 shooters in the league for most of his career.

Very good tribute. I wrote one of my own on my blog.

One thing that concerns me about Miller leaving is that there isn't enough guys in the league that have the fundamentals that he had as well as the ability to shoot out of the gym. It's something that's definitely lacking in today's NBA.

J.P., you mistake my not wanting to extrapolate shortened careers as a damnation of all those players with short careers. Not true, but I am not going to stop the clock on Reggie's career at 13 years just because that's when your favorite player got a screwy back.

You also treat longevity and greatness as mutually exclusive. I disagree and say instead that productive longevity is an element of greatness. The longer a player is a force in the league, the more that fans get to enjoy him. NBA basketball is about entertainment. An 18 year career, 14 of which ended in playoff runs, gives a player lots of opportunities for entertainment. Reggie's playoff games were almost 2 additional seasons of camera time. Reggie's greatness at 13 years (he already had the 3 point record) was only enhanced each year he played, because he was still important and entertaining.

Glad you mentioned Mitch Richmond, because Mitch was awesome during his prime, probably better than Miller in his prime. But Mitch played for terrible teams. Some of greatness is raw numbers, and there, Mitch & Reggie are close. But a lot of greatness is also timing and TV, and Reggie had 131 playoff games, televised coast to coast, where he talked trash to Spike and kicked out his leg enough to be seared into the minds of the public. That's the combination of emotional and empirical factors that highlight why Reggie is so loved (and hated) and Mitch Richmond will be remembered as a "good player."

I recall from your Mike Davis posts, J.P., that you are a basketball purist. You want rebounds and defense and steals and well-timed passes. Reggie was ok at that stuff. But he was a must-watch at showtime, and that is what made him a great NBA player.

I think Reggie is one of the last to represent what I deem old school NBA; those who played for the passion rather than the $ signs. With David Robinson gone and now Miller, I cannot bring to mind another player who represents that Isaiah Thomas/Magic Johnson/Bird/Jordan/Stockton/Ewing era of the game.

Charles, Tim Duncan definitely comes to mind as one. Charles Oakley and Michael Finley are probably two others.

I've never heard of this fellow, but I don't follow prof basketball. Did he die? Some of the things here seem to suggest that they are eulogies.

In all the talk of where Reggie fits on the 'all time greats list', no one mentioned the lists he didn't make - the police blotter lists. No arrests for drugs, DUI, domestic battery, etc. that is so common in professional sports today. He's a good person and someone whom my kids can look up to. And that's what this Pacers fan will miss most.

Reggie was a class act. He willed the Pacers into the 2005 playoffs after that mess of a season.

Look at the Pacers this year, with Reggie gone.

No, don't. It's too ugly.

one of you made a comment about how we only remember reggie's makes and that you yourself can remember quite a few misses, and sometimes in big time games in the clutch moments. but that typifies reggie's career. make or miss, he was taking the last shot, he was going to have the ball at the end of the game. true sports fans realize what reggie was able to do with a team that few knew even existed when he entered the league. he was bood on draft day, his sister was an all-american. he had nothing going for him. his house was burned down, and threats were made for his life, and yet he stayed in indiana for his whole career. a career that was highlighted by clutch shots and late game heroics. we always talk about his great shooting, but dont forget his toughness. as a kid i looked up to reggie and idolized him, even now after he has retired i will not forget what he did for the game of basketball. 2 threes, 2 free throws, a steal, and a rebound, in 8.6 seconds to come back from being down by 6, who could pull that off other than reggie, the kid who was born with leg problems and the doctors said that he would be lucky to walk, and to forget about sports. reggie gave his life to basketball and to indiana, and to do anything other than to praise him for it is just stupid, reggie miller is my hero hands down