After finishing the 2009/10 NBA Season without making the playoffs for the 4th straight season, Head Coach Jim O’Brian is looking for stability and cohesiveness on his squad this year but more importantly, he needs his team to play defense. Apparently, PF Danny Granger has gotten the message and coaching staff feels like Granger has made a renewed commitment on defense this season. If that gets done, the chances of the team ending their playoff drought improve dramatically. "There's pressure on all of us to be a playoff team, to be one that is involved in a playoff race," Coach Jim O'Brien said. "Is there more pressure this year because we're in the last year of our contract? "I don't personally don't feel it, but I feel tremendous pressure to get this team in the playoffs and in a position to try to win every basketball game."
Look for your Indiana Pacers to play hard all season and try and make that elusive playoff spot.
The Indiana Pacers are coming off a 36-46 2008/09 season record. At the conclusion of the season GM Donnie Walsh left to join the Knicks front office, Larry Bird took over all basketball related duties. David Morway took over as GM on May 7, 2008. In the 2009 draft, the Pacers chose F Tyler Hansbrough from the University of North Carolina and guard A.J. Price from UCONN. Rounding out the roster, the Pacers then signed vets Dahntay Jones, Solomon Jones and Earl Watson.
The season has not unfolded as the franchise would have liked and the teams’ gotten off to a rough 9-18 start and are just two games from being the Eastern Conference’s Cellar Dweller. To make matters worse, the team’s leading scorer, Danny Granger, will have to miss up to six weeks due to a torn right plantar fascia.
As one of the four ABA teams to merge with the NBA in 1976, the Indiana Pacers along with the Denver Nuggets are the only teams not to be involved in an NBA Finals series. The Spurs have won four NBA Championship, the Nets have been a part of one. While in the ABA, the Pacers appeared in the ABA finals five times in the leagues nine year existence, winning three ABA Championships in four years. After transitioning into the NBA, the team struggled both on the court and financially. While they were less then stable financially while in the ABA, the $3.2 million fee to the remaining ABA teams not being assimilated into the NBA nearly put the team under. The franchise had to take a contribution from a group of businessmen to help keep them afloat. On top of that, the NBA denied the new teams from sharing in any of the National TV revenues for four years. The team went so far as to hold a telethon to raise funds to help keep the team in Indiana. The franchise barely made their ticket goal as they
reached the 8,000 mark ten minutes before the telethon was set to go off the air. In another NBA first, the Pacers invited woman’s basketball star Ann Meyers to try out for the team. She did not make the final cut and to this day remains the only woman to ever try out for an NBA team.
The 1987 season would see a revival of the franchise with the draft of UCLA product Reggie Miller who was the 11th overall pick in the NBA Draft. The arrival of Miller and then Rik Smiths in 1988 would take the Pacers to another level and by 1989 the franchise was heading into the NBA Playoffs. A trade with the Dallas Mavericks for Detlef Schrempf would give the team depth and deadly shooting.
The 1989/90 squad, led by Head Coach Bob Hill, took the franchise into its third NBA Playoffs appearance and again faces the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons would claim their 2nd consecutive NBA Championship. The 1990/91 season saw a return to the playoffs this time against the legendary Boston Celtics who were led by Larry Byrd. The Celtics would take the series in five games. Getting back to the playoffs the next season, the Pacers faced the Celtics again only this time, the Celtics took care of business, sweeping the Pacers in three games.
Larry Brown took the reins of the team in the 1993/94 season who led them back to the playoffs winning 47 games. In the first round, the Pacers took out Shaquille O’Neal and the Orlando Magic in a three game sweep, winning their first ever NBA playoff series. They then took on the Atlanta Hawks, taking out the top seeded team. In the Eastern Conference Playoffs, the Pacers faced the New York Knicks and had the Knicks on their heels for part of the series. The Knicks finally prevailed winning the series 4 games to 2. Point guard Mark Jackson joined the team in the 1994/95 season and led them to a 52-30 campaign. This was their first 50 plus win season since the team’s days in the ABA. Jackson and Miller would lead the team into the Eastern Conference Finals where they would meet the pesky New York Knicks. Game one of this series would prove remarkable as Reggie Miller, with his team down 15 points in the 4th quarter, would go on a 25 point scoring spree that included five 3-point
shots. Miller then famously flashed the “choke” sign to the home arena Knick fans as the Pacers staged the improbable comeback from behind victory. The Knicks would eventually take out the Pacers in seven games.
The next major event was the Brawl at the Palace. In a 2004/05 game against the Detroit Pistons at the Palace, Pacer Ron Artest committed a hard foul on center Ben Wallace. Wall then retaliated which quickly escalated into a full scale brawl that had fans tossing everything they could. One fan, John Green, launched a cup of beer at Artest and Artest reacted by running into the stands after him. Meanwhile, another fan and came on the court and after center Jermaine O’Neal who slugged him. When all the smoke was clear, Artest was suspended for the remainder of the season to include the playoffs, Stephen Jackson, 30 days, O’Neal, 25 games, Ben Wallace 6 games and Anthony Johnson 5 games. Longtime GM Donnie Walsh left the Pacer in April of 2008 to join the New York Knicks.
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