“The league will be a laughingstock” – Reggie Miller on why the NBA adding a four-point line makes him cringe originally appeared on Basketball Network.
He can already picture it now.
Some desperate team jacking up shots from nearly half court, fans gasping at the spectacle while the scoreboard tilts toward the absurd.
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And somewhere in the stands, Reggie Miller is doubled over laughing.
“It’s comical,” the Hall of Famer said of the NBA’s flirtation with adding a four-point line.
Miller is one of the greatest 3-point shooters the league has ever seen and the man who once held the record for most consecutive playoff games with a made 3-pointer until that cherubic-looking guy with some major super power in his right wrist broke it in the first game of the 2016 Western Conference finals.
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“The league will be a laughingstock,” Miller said, “and I will be in front of the line laughing the loudest. Why are we always trying to change and adjust the game?”
A shooter’s respect for the game
Now, hold it right there.
This isn’t just another geezer from ancient history who refuses to let go of his generation. This is a shooter who built his career on some serious confidence, and he never had to launch moonshots from the logo to prove that.
During his 18-year run with the Indiana Pacers, Miller knocked down 2,560 3-pointers — second all-time when he retired in 2005 — while shooting 39.5 percent from deep. He did it in an era when the average team attempted just 13 threes per game, a far cry from the 35-plus we see today.
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Charles Barkley is still deep-frying the Celtics for that one game somewhere. But anyway…
That’s part of why the idea of a four-point line grates on Miller. The 3-pointer has already changed the sport so much that entire defensive schemes have had to be reinvented. It’s the shot that made Curry the face of a dynasty, helped transform the Houston Rockets into an analytics experiment, and has seven of the top 1 team scoring averages in NBA history belonging to seasons played after 2017.
Why it would change everything
The NBA has already pushed the 3-pointer to its limit. In 1980, the first full season with the shot, league-wide accuracy sat at 28 percent. Today, it hovers around 36 percent, with players like Damian Lillard, Trae Young, and Curry regularly sinking shots from distances that would’ve been considered rash — borderline stupid — in Miller’s prime.
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Now imagine for a second a tie game with 30 seconds left.
In Miller’s era, you’d run a play to free up your best shooter at the arc. Now? Some coaches wouldn’t mind drawing up plays to spring guys loose from 35 feet, because the math boys have been on record for years that is it the “right” shot.
What even is a right shot these days?
The moment that happens, defensive principles that have been in place for decades collapse. Zones would extend, double teams would come from awkward angles, and the spacing of the game — something players master over years — would be rewritten in a single offseason.
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If the league goes through with it, Miller won’t be shaking his head in silent disapproval. He’ll be front row, laughing harder than anyone, watching a once finely tuned game try to survive its own thirst for spectacle.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 12, 2025, where it first appeared.