Reggie Miller doesn't need to buy a beer when he's in Indiana, where he is an absolute legend, having spent his entire NBA career with the Indiana Pacers. One of the greatest players to ever play the game, Miller is also a member of the club of great players who never managed to raise and kiss the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy during their playing careers in the NBA.

Miller had some solid chances to win it all, though. In 2000, he led the Pacers to the NBA Finals, only to lose to Shaquille O'Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers in six games. Four years later, in 2005, Miller decided to call it quits and retire from basketball without a ring. Then in 2007, there were rumors that Miller could be joining the Boston Celtics, who, at the time, managed to build a superteam with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joining Paul Pierce in Beantown.

In a recent interview with Bob Kravitz of The Athletic, Miller shed light on that rumor and revealed a heartwarming reason why he had no interest in coming to Boston to chase an NBA ring.

Look I knew they were stacked to win a championship, and they did, but it just wouldn’t have seemed right to be popping champagne in Boston when we (Indiana) grew up together, we laughed together, we cried so many tears together because we were so close for so many years. How could I be sitting and cheering and laughing because I won my championship and all I ever wanted to do was win in Indiana?

People don’t understand — and we’ve seen this when LeBron came back to Cleveland, and now Milwaukee — when small markets win like that, and Indiana is in that category, it’s like winning three or four, it is. We’re not the Lakers, Boston, Chicago. When you win in a small market, those fans live and die with you.

Sure, Miller was not able to accomplish the ultimate goal of an NBA player, but Pacers just had another reason — as if they needed more — to love him.