Reggie Miller Suffers from Short Term Memory Loss

While he knew his way around the basketball court, Reggie Miller, the great former UCLA Bruin and Indiana Pacer basketball star recently got lost in the world of verb tenses, at least sequencing them properly when more than one action takes place in the past, even if it is the recent past.

Sitting court side with all players in full view Miller was able to appraise the abilities of UCLA's Kevin Love and Darren Collison in a recent game against Washington State University's hoopsters. Oops, or was he present? He seemed confused when later questioned by journalists about his appraisal of Kevin Love:

"I haven't seen him up close...he's got the size and athletic ability to be a very good NBA player" (Los Angeles Times, 1/13/2007). Wait a minute, Reggie, how could you know "he's got the size and athletic ability to be a very good NBA player" if you "haven't seen him"?

Miller used the present perfect tense have seen, (although put in the negative: haven't seen). Two past actions had occurred when Miller made his statement: first: Miller arrived to the court, second: he observed and evaluated a few of UCLA's team members.

The rule for the proper sequencing of these two past actions goes: When two actions occur in the past, the action occurring first is put in the pluperfect tense (also called past perfect indicative), and the action occurring after is put into the definite past (normal past tense).

Miller should have said, I hadn't seen him up close until I arrived for this game, or something similar. First he arrived for the game, then he observed and evaluated the players. Elliptically, he need only have said, I hadn't seen him, the rest being understood in context. That is, he arrived to the court, then he saw the players. Miller is actually saying that he had not seen the players before he arrived to witness the spectacle he was questioned about after the game.

Confused? So was Reggie Miller, but that's the way the ball sometimes bounces.