Former Pacers guard Reggie Miller had some of the most memorable moments in his 18-year NBA career against the Knicks. Filmmaker Dan Klores has captured these moments in the context of the Knicks-Pacers rivalry in the new film Winning Time.
Klores' film premiered on Jan. 24 at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The film chronicles three consecutive years of playoff series between the Knicks and Pacers.
Miller is the primary focus of the film. Klores saw Miller as a rare athlete who transcended his sport.
"I saw him as a performance artist as few great athletes are," Klores told the New York Daily News. "To me, the movie is about his psychological need to overcome the overwhelming feeling that he's second rate — that he's never going to measure up to his sister Cheryl. She was a huge star. Reggie had braces on his legs until he was 5 years old. He was not going to be Cheryl, or his older brother, Darrell, who was a catcher for the Angels. He says, 'Against the Knicks, it was Cheryl all over again.' To me that was the most beautiful, telling line in the film. That was the psychological dynamic. I love that stuff."
The film features Miller's on-the-court performances in the playoffs against the Knicks, performances Klores says were calculated.
"Reggie was a renegade," Klores told the Daily News. "In real life, he is quiet and humble and serious and private. But as a performer, he was the bad boy. I asked him, 'Why do you talk [trash]? Is it to rev you up, or to psych out the opponent?' He said 70 percent of my talk is to get me started and 30 percent is to get inside the opponent's head."
The Knicks-Pacers rivalry has diminished following Miller’s retirement after the 2004-05 NBA season. However, Knicks and Pacers fans can relive the best moments of the rivalry in Klores' film.
