Peyton Manning’s #18 bronze statue stands proudly outside the north entrance of Lucas Oil Stadium. Manning was the crown jewel of the Colts franchise for over a decade, leading the team to a Super Bowl victory in 2007.
But what about that NBA team down the street? Surely someone deserves to have their likeness displayed in front of Bankers Life Fieldhouse for all to see.
That person, according to JMV, should be Reggie Miller. He made his case on Thursday’s edition of The Ride with JMV.
“Make no mistake, ‘Slick’ Leonard absolutely deserves a statue downtown,” JMV said. “He does, because he and his wife helped save the franchise with that telethon in the late 70s. I mean he is Mr. Pacer. He deserves one. But Reg deserves one, too.”
Miller leads all current and former Pacers in points (25,279 – nearly double Rik Smits’ second place total of 12,871), assists (4,141), steals (1,505), games played (1,389), and 3-pointers made (2,560). That covers just about every meaningful offensive stat in the book.
“Now I don’t exactly believe that it’s a crime because there’s not one – hold on a second – there’s not one that has been erected just yet. I could’ve said constructed, but you know me…But yeah, he does deserve it, no matter what you think.”
Miller never brought an NBA title back to Indianapolis, but JMV thinks that argument is off-base.
“Listen, basically to this point right now, Reggie Miller has been a part of, what, 90% of the relevancy?” JMV said. “I mean, he created the relevancy here. He along with those teams. It was created by virtue of him.”
“…Nobody should be arrested for there not being a statue up yet, but one of these days? There’s no doubt about it.”
You simply can’t talk about the history of the Pacers organization without mentioning the legacy of Reggie Miller. And that’s about as legendary as it gets.
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