UCLA Basketball: Hall Of Fame Bruin Makes Cut Of Top 40 Best Team USA Players Ever

But is he too low?

Dec 11, 2020; Los Angeles, California, USA; Fan cutouts of Reggie Miller (left), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Former UCLA Bruins shooting guard-turned-Indiana Pacers Hall of Famer Reggie Miller has earned yet another accolade, 19 years following his last professional basketball game.

That's because the 6'7" swingman has been ranked as the No. 39-best player in the extended history of Team USA international basketball play, for any gender, by The Athletic's Joe Vardon. He won gold medals for Team USA in 1994 and '96.

"While Shaq was terrorizing the paint at the 1994 FIBA championship, Reggie Miller rained down 3s like the all-world shooter that he was," Vardon observes. "The 30 treys he splashed were bested only by Paul Pierce’s 33 at the 2002 World Championships. Miller was on that team, actually, and sprained his ankle in the sixth game. Not coincidentally the U.S. lost three of its last four."

"Miller also put his stamp on his only Olympics in 1996 as the 17 3s he made stands as the sixth-most in U.S. Olympic history – for a career. He did it in eight games en route to another gold." Vardon notes.

The Riverside native, a two-time First-Team All-Pac-10 honoree and an All-American Third Teamer in 1986, played for the Bruins from 1983-87. He went on to enjoy a decorated 18-year NBA career as one of the best sharpshooters in league history, presaging the three point-shooting revolution of the modern era by a few decades. He was named to five All-Star teams and three All-NBA clubs.

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