Chicago Bulls: Reggie Miller never wanted to join forces with MJ

Last year, an enormous spotlight was placed on the great dynasty Chicago Bulls teams from the 1990s as the hit 10-part documentary series “The Last Dance” was released in five separate weekends. In the midst of the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Last Dance helped to distract the basketball world from the lack of NBA game action during the hiatus.

Moreover, with the spotlight being shed on the 1990s Bulls dynasty teams, legendary shooting guard Michael Jordan obviously came to the forefront. From memorabilia to media hype, Jordan shot back into the national hoops spotlight in 2020.

And Jordan and the 1990s Bulls were placed back into the spotlight in a different way this week. In an interview with the former Indiana Pacers Hall-of-Fame shooting guard Reggie Miller on ESPN, the topic of the all-time great shooter joining a potential even-greater super team with the Bulls was brought up.

The original topic of the piece from ESPN this week was actually surrounding some of the recent great feats of the Golden State Warriors superstar point guard Stephen Curry. But the topic of Miller in connection with Jordan and the Bulls was brought about as a side discussion.

Reggie Miller turned down Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls

In discussing the greatness of Curry, Miller was asked about the possibility of him ever joining a super team with the likes of Jordan and the Bulls in the 1990s. And Miller emphatically answered that question with a resounding no.

Here’s more on what Miller had to say on the matter in this ESPN piece.

"No. And if Michael Jordan ever would have called me and tried to sway me to come to Chicago, I would have told him to go f— himself! “I’ll be coming to see you on I-65 or whatever that highway is there. I’ll be down to see you.”I never came close to going anywhere else. Contemplating, or other teams sniffing around, like the Knicks, possibly. I already had a storied history against them, right? I couldn’t go there."

Super teams weren’t really a thing yet in the 1990s when Miller was starring for the Pacers and Jordan for the Bulls. The trio that featured Hall-of-Fame forwards Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman along with Jordan was about as close as we came to a super team in the NBA in the 1990s.

Miller never wound up getting past Jordan and the Bulls in the Eastern Conference in his hay day in the 1990s. The most memorable matchup these two ever had in the playoffs was back in the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals when the Bulls got past the Pacers in a tight seven-game series.

Jordan and Miller are now both Hall-of-Famers. The latter of those two didn’t come close to matching the greatness of Jordan in his NBA career, but he was one of the best shooters of all-time.