Reggie Miller doubles down on Caitlin Clark-Payton Pritchard comp: ‘They’re very similar’

The first Sunday Night Basketball broadcast of the year on NBC was a historic moment for the NBA. It was also a historic moment for fans online who will never forget the viral reaction photos of special correspondent Caitlin Clark as she heard game analyst Reggie Miller explain who her game reminded him of.

After Clark took the spotlight for several minutes of the broadcast, NBA on NBC anchor Maria Taylor opened up the conversation to the rest of the panel. Taylor asked Miller to give an NBA comp for Clark’s game, seemingly looking for the Hall of Famer to help hype up the Indiana Fever point guard.

Rather than list off an active All-Star or dip into the history books for a legend of the game to illustrate how much of an icon Clark has already become between Iowa and the WNBA, Miller offered a far more meager name: Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard.

While Pritchard is an NBA champion and the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, his stature is not in the same universe as that of Clark, who is the all-time NCAA basketball scoring leader and a WNBA Rookie of the Year who regularly posts triple-doubles.

Fans came down hard on Miller for minimizing Clark with his take. Even his NBC colleague Carmelo Anthony admitted Miller was “tripping” while discussing the moment on his podcast.

But in an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show this week, Miller did not back down from the comparison. The fellow Indiana basketball star instead doubled down, arguing that anyone who took issue with the Pritchard comp is not a “basketball purist.”

“The question from Maria to me was, ‘Who does your game remind you of?’ It wasn’t a question of historically or stature-wise, who is she compared to?” Miller said.

“Because if that was the case, obviously, the WNBA, she has brought so much attention and eyes like a Stephen Curry. So if that was the question, I probably should have said Stephen Curry. But I was going by game alone, like, who does her game remind me of?

“And when I look at Payton Pritchard … they’re very similar. Now he’s probably a better scorer once he gets into the paint, but I was talking about in terms of, she loves to go left to that step-back three, deep three. That’s Payton Pritchard. Throw ahead, get the ball back, make quick moves, assists. To me, that was Payton Pritchard.”

Miller explained that he did not notice Clark’s reaction in the moment. It wasn’t until others sent him some of the chatter online that he realized what a big story it had become.

In the past, Miller’s sister, Cheryl — a basketball legend in her own right — has accused Clark’s detractors of racism. When Cheryl Miller coached Clark at the 2024 All-Star game, she was hugely complimentary.

So this doesn’t seem to be about family beef or any sort of grudge. Reggie Miller truly believes that of all the basketball players in his mental notebook, Pritchard is most similar to Clark.

“The basketball purists, we know who Payton Pritchard is,” he told Patrick. “But again, it wasn’t the name that I guess she wasn’t looking for or the people wasn’t looking for.”

For what it’s worth, when Anthony addressed the viral moment on his own podcast, he offered Luka Doncic and fellow Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton as closer parallels for Clark among active NBA players than Pritchard.