Reggie Miller talked plenty of junk (or trash, or smack) to opponents in his 18 years with the Indiana Pacers, but he had trouble taking it from one particular opponent.
He offered a hint during a Tuesday appearance on the “Dan Patrick Show.”
“To this day I tell people he was my hardest cover, and I hated him,” Miller said.
And it wasn’t Michael Jordan.
‘All the tears I shed in Indiana’: Why Reggie Miller didn’t come out of retirement to chase title
On this year’s NBA Draft: Miller likes potential No. 1 pick Chet Holmgren’s brash confidence
It was Drazen Petrovic, one of the early European players to play in the NBA. He debuted with Portland in 1989 and twice averaged more than 20 points per game with the New Jersey Nets in the early ’90s. The Croatian died at 28 in 1993 in a car accident. He is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
“Drove me absolutely mad with his antics, because he was so good at scoring the basketball right in my face and talking junk right in my ear,” Miller said.
Petrovic came up because of Steph Curry’s shimmying after scoring against the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals.
Miller’s solution for stopping the antics: “Do something about it. And there wasn’t a lot I could do about it (with Petrovic).”
Miller noted that in the 1990s, teams could give opponents “love taps” — knocking down a player to send a message. However, that wouldn’t fly today.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Reggie Miller says he ‘hated’ Drazen Petrovic because of antics