Kelly Oubre Jr. Reveals Reggie Miller Was Only Player Whose Retirement Made Him Cry

Kelly Oubre Jr. said Reggie Miller is the only player whose retirement made him cry, in a Q&A with HoopsHype's Cyro Asseo published Friday. Oubre signed with the Indiana Pacers in July and will wear No. 10.

The Q&A was done on behalf of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.

Julius Erving made Oubre's first draft of an all-time starting five and was cut because Oubre is not with Philadelphia anymore. The final group has Kyrie Irving at point guard, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant on the wings, Oubre at power forward, and Wilt Chamberlain at center.

"My GOAT growing up was Kobe," Oubre said. "But obviously I wasn't in the generation to be able to watch Mike hoop. But my dad used to always talk about him, and I used to say Kobe was my favorite player. He used to say, you know who he got it from? Mike. So I went down the rabbit hole and saw the similarities. So I'm gonna go with: it was Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. I kinda think of him as the same person."

"Reggie Miller, I remember sitting at home; I was like eight years old, seven, I just started playing basketball too," Oubre continued. "And Reggie Miller retired, and I cried. Mind you, I never really necessarily was a big Pacers fan. I did like Reggie Miller just because he could shoot. He was nimble, played hard, and he had passion. He was the only player I've ever cried for when they retired. And I remember sitting at home watching it on TV, and it was his last game or something, and I was crying."

Miller played his final game on May 19, 2005, a Game 6 loss to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference semifinals at Conseco Fieldhouse. He scored 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting, including 4-of-8 from 3-point range, in the 88-79 defeat.

His last basket was a 3-pointer with under two minutes left that pulled Indiana within 82-79. With 16 seconds left, Miller came out of the game to a standing ovation. Detroit's players joined in.

He retired after 18 seasons, all with Indiana, as the NBA's 12th-leading career scorer. Earlier this month, the Pacers shared a look at new uniforms featuring Miller and Tyrese Haliburton.

Oubre was born in New Orleans. He played one season at Kansas, averaging 9.3 points and making the Big 12 All-Freshman Team, before the Atlanta Hawks drafted him No. 15 overall in 2015 and traded him to the Washington Wizards. His rookie season was Bryant's last.

Oubre calls the Pacers the brand he would choose to play for.

"And I thought about this the other day," Oubre explained. "I was like, wow, so I'm in Indiana now. And I was crying in front of the TV when he retired. So that's a little nugget."

By Oubre's own account, his ego once had him saying loud and wrong things.

"It's better to be seen than heard," Oubre said. "Somebody told me that, actually. I couldn't sit here and tell you who it was. I think it was this guy named David Adkins. He was a player development coach. He actually coached Kevin Durant in the DC area when KD was growing up. But he was a player development coach in my first couple of years in DC."

"And I was one of those kids, man," Oubre continued. "I would wanna roar, I would wanna chirp at the best players, talk crap. And he pulled me aside one day, and he was like, you're really good. You're going at these dudes, and that's everything we want. But it's just like you're kind of making people a little, I would say he would say, making them a little uncomfortable, which, as a competitor, I'm like, I'm just talking and playing basketball."

Adkins joined the Wizards in July 2014 as a player development assistant, a year before Oubre was drafted. He had been an assistant at Montrose Christian in Rockville, Maryland, when Durant played there. Before the Wizards hired him, Adkins spent five seasons on the Maryland women's basketball staff.

He stayed in Washington through 2021. Adkins later worked on staffs with the Los Angeles Clippers, the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Denver Nuggets, and he was named associate head coach of the Washington women's basketball program in April 2024.

Oubre spent parts of four seasons with the Wizards before a December 2018 trade to the Phoenix Suns.

Oubre now plays with few expectations and tries to keep his ego from making him think he is bigger than the program.

"But in the team picture, I was the youngest dude on the team coming in, being the loudest," Oubre said. "It's not necessarily something that you want. You want people to see and respect the work that you put in, not the words that you say. So one thing I would tell a younger version of myself or a younger player is... it's better to be seen than heard, meaning put the work in, let your game speak for itself, and when it's your time to have a voice, it will be given to you. You've earned that instead of just forcing your way to have one. So that's the best, simplest advice I can give to myself or a younger player."

Indiana holds media day Monday and opens training camp Tuesday.