Reggie Miller on JJ Redick, TNT NBA rights and his love of mountain biking

Reggie Miller is known worldwide for his contributions to basketball. The NBA Hall of Famer played for the Indiana Pacers for nearly two decades and immediately moved into the commentary booth after his retirement. In 2005, he joined Turner Sports, where he has remained ever since. His passion for the game, both as a player and as an analyst today, is evident. But Miller has an equally great passion for another sport – mountain biking.

On Saturday, Miller will take part in the Lifetime Tahoe Trail Mountain Bike Race, one of Life Time’s 30 annual cycling and running events. The course is 62.1 miles long and consists of two laps around Lake Tahoe. Before the race, Miller spoke with Sports Illustrated about his passion for mountain biking and why he is drawn to Life Time events. Miller also talked about JJ Redick’s hiring of the Los Angeles Lakers, how he would feel if TNT lost the NBA media rights and more.

Sports Illustrated: You have been with TNT for a long time and signed a contract extension with the broadcaster earlier this year. What is your opinion on the possibility of TNT losing the NBA rights in the next media rights deal?

Reggie Miller: Look, of course I would be sad if we didn’t have a seat at the table. I’ve only really experienced two things in my entire life – 18 years with the Indiana Pacers, a team, and 19 years with Turner. Think about it. Almost 40 years of basketball and I’ve only experienced two things. Of course, not having a potential seat at the table makes me sad. We have great relationships with the league and with many of the current players. My teammates, I think we do the best broadcast. Whether it’s our Emmy-winning Insights into the NBA with Ernie, Kenny, Charles and Shaq or some of the best decision makers like Brian Anderson and Kevin Harlan. Would that be sad? Of course. But life goes on.

But all I’m hearing, and this is again way above my pay grade, is that negotiations are still ongoing. Until there’s a definitive no, and it hasn’t happened, I’m not going to give up hope.

S.I.: What do you think about JJ Redick’s hiring by the Lakers and are there aspects of being a co-commentator that you think could help him as a rookie coach?

RM: Think about it. Outside of actually coaching or being an assistant coach, I think your job as a basketball analyst is to analyze footage and video footage and analyze the game. From our standpoint, we see all 30 teams if you’re lucky. You see all these coaches, different strategies, different game plans. You see the game at the highest level. On top of that, you’ve played the game at the highest level. I think JJ will bring that expertise, having seen all these different coaches and elite teams. He’s a basketball lifer if you’ve listened to his podcast. He was one of those guys that was like me, staying in the gym and working on his craft. I think he’ll bring that mindset.

At the end of the day, it’s nice to have the luxury of being able to rely on LeBron James and Anthony Davis, two guys who have won championships. I think he takes a beating sometimes. But he’s hired a very experienced coaching staff. He’s surrounded himself with guys with a lot of NBA experience. Especially Scott Brooks and Nate McMillan. Those guys have been through a lot. He’s going to rely on them as well and at the end of the day, the basketball gods will have the final say on whether he’s ready or not, right?

S.I.: Have you ever considered taking this step?

RM: No. I don’t think I have the temperament or the patience to train. I don’t have the patience. I don’t. I know I probably could, but I would invest too much in it. Much like I invest a lot in my two passions now, which are being an analyst and cycling. If you want to do it, you have to give it your all. I don’t know if I would have the patience for it.

S.I.: You became a major figure again in the rivalry between the Knicks and the Pacers when you commentated on their playoff games this postseason. How did that feel for you?

RM: First of all Love Team rivalries. In basketball, they like to push the superstars, and rightly so. But there’s something to be said about team rivalries. I grew up in Riverside, where the Lakers played Boston. Both organizations, teams, cities, states didn’t like each other! That was the drive and fuel for everything. Yes, they had great players in Magic vs. Bird. But when you factor in the fan bases that don’t like each other…for the Pacers and the Knicks, it was cool to start a new chapter in this historic rivalry that goes back to our battles in the 90s.

At the end of the day, though, I tell people: I was there to do my job until I wasn’t there to do my job. It was all cool, all fun and games. The worst part is I can’t control the outcome like I did as a player. As an analyst, you talk about X’s and O’s and you don’t really care who wins. I didn’t care if Indiana or New York won. I wanted an exciting game, and that was it, and an exciting series, and seven games shows that it was. It was cool to be a part of that. I feel like it’s not over yet.

S.I.: How did you get into mountain biking?

RM: I think my path is a little different than most. In 2000, I was getting ready to move to Malibu. I was going through a life transition. I was in the middle of a divorce and I needed a new change. A fresh start. I was living in Hollywood, in the city, and I needed something new. My business manager told me to go to Malibu. She found the place that I’m still at 24 years later. When I walked in, I was in a restaurant. A guy came up to me and said, “Hey, you should come mountain bike with us.” I had never mountain biked in my life. Everyone had bikes growing up, but I had never ridden trails or anything like that.

This gentleman was Tim Commerford, bassist for Rage Against The Machine. He had heard that my house was on this trail, one of the most famous trails in Malibu. His two friends happened to be Laird Hamilton and Don Wildman. These guys absolutely blew me away. Mind you, I was still playing at the time. I was still in the NBA. I thought to myself, I’m in shape, they’re not going to overtake me. Me. And they destroyed me on this trip.

Going up high, being on the trails and getting lost is what got me hooked on mountain biking in the beginning. I couldn’t do it a lot because I was still an amateur and you didn’t want to have an accident downhill, or get out of contract or anything like that. When I retired in 2005 or 2006, I started doing it a bit more intensively.

S.I.: How has mountain biking changed for you since you retired?

RM: You have to live life. When I was a weekend warrior, fitness wasn’t that important to me because I got it at the gym and training. When I retired, I wanted to keep looking good in my suits for TNT, so this is a good way to move and sweat. But I’ve found that you have to commit to the cycling life. You have to commit to the training, the schedule, the nutrition. For me, it’s a little different. I wish I could train more than I do because I’m also a family man with three younger kids. If you’re serious about cycling, you can be gone three, four, five hours. I want to be a present father and dad. So it’s a balancing act because plus I work for Turner. I travel a lot. I talk games. I have to get away. Finding opportunities to ride, to race, can be a balancing act sometimes.

It helps me keep that competitive balance. I didn’t know if I would ever get that butterflies in my stomach again, that itch when I hit a jump ball. Because when you play jump balls in basketball, you’re so tense. That’s the love of basketball. But I found that love in racing on two wheels. That “three, two, one” and the starting gun? I still get that butterflies in my stomach. Riding a bike helped me get my basketball itch back a little bit.

S.I.: The discipline you describe gives the impression that there are elements here that are similar to professional basketball.

RM: You go to a basketball gym and you have to make 500-750 shots. Repetition is key. You do seal sides, 17s. Cycling is interval training. You have to go up and down hills. You have to learn how to corner. There are a lot of similarities, but it’s less stressful when you’re on two wheels than when you’re trying to block Shaq and he goes through your whole body. You elbow bumps when you’re in a little scrum and there are riders around. Friendly elbows, not the kind of elbows Karl Malone would give me, but friendly elbows to make space.

I’ve found, and this is interesting because I’ve been competing since I was 50, I’ll be 59 in August, that the 50-year-old division is just as ruthless and competitive as the pros. In the over-50 division, it’s ruthless and I love that because it gives me the thrill that I missed in basketball.

S.I.: How did you come to Life Time?

RM: I try to do 6-10 races a year. Most of these races are in California, on weekends when I can drive an hour or two from my home. In the summer I always try to do 1-2 big events. For the past two years my big event has been Steamboat Gravel.

When choosing events, the main thing I look for is the organizer and the event – are they inclusive? By that I mean are all people of all genres invited. Are there kids races? Are the activities surrounding the event kid friendly? My big initiative for why I’ve always wanted to be on two wheels and pushing it forward is because I wanted to include more women and more people of color. Do the races I compete in have all of those qualities? I know a lot of people who have competed in the Life Time series and this race in Tahoe and Truckee in particular ticked all the boxes.

The last two things on the list are probably: is the course challenging and how beautiful is it? I never thought anything could top Steamboat, Colorado. That was like heaven on earth. But being up here in Truckee, California and being able to pre-race the course… I think there are different corners of heaven. This course is definitely one of those corners. It’s absolutely breathtaking here. Life Time and this particular race ticked all the boxes in terms of inclusivity—there are people here who wouldn’t normally race. I’m also interested in meeting all the volunteers, the people behind the scenes who help us pack our bags and check us in. To me, they’re the lifeblood of all these races, the volunteers and the people behind the scenes. This race ticked all the boxes and I’m excited to be here.

At the end of the day, cycling is a good teacher of how to navigate darker skies and darker times in your life. Anyone who has ridden a bike for any length of time knows there will be times when you have to go to dark places. I feel like I’m going to go to dark places starting on lap two at Lake Tahoe. I’m looking forward to it, I feel like I’m ready, but do we know if we’re really ready until we’re in the thick of it?