Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
It is hard to believe that the Indiana Pacers’ last basketball title came in the defunct American Basketball Association in 1973.
Actually, all three of the Indianapolis-based professional basketball team’s championship trophies came during its nine years as an original member of the ABA. The Indiana Pacers won the ABA championship in 1970, 1972, and 1973.
That last title came three years before the Pacers (along with the Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs, and the New York/New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets) were merged into the NBA in 1976.
The next 49 years of professional basketball in NBA have produced nothing to put in the trophy case for the state’s beloved Pacers.
You might think that the Indiana Pacers have been a perpetual loser during that stretch of time.
However, you would be wrong.
This franchise endured a very rough start after joining the NBA. The Pacers posted just one winning season in their first ten NBA seasons from 1976-1985.
The next 39 seasons have found the Indiana Pacers posting a winning record 21 times. Including this year, the Pacers have now appeared in the NBA playoffs 28 times during those 39 years.
The Indiana Pacers have only reached the NBA Finals one time since joining the NBA back in 1976. The 2000 Pacers team lost to the Shaquille O’Neal-led Los Angeles Lakers by a 4-2 margin.
The Pacers are 0-NBA in championships, but this year feels different!
This year’s NBA has produced a couple of surprise regular season Conference winners which are both struggling to stay alive in the playoffs right now.
Most basketball fans would not have selected Cleveland to win the NBA Eastern Conference regular season nor Oklahoma City to win the West by a whopping 16 games ahead of the #2 seed Houston Rockets.
OKC lost their Game 1 at home and is tied at 2 games apiece in the Thunder’s NBA Western Conference semifinal against the 2023 NBA champion Denver Nuggets (there’s that ABA connection again!).
The surprising Eastern Conference #4 seed Indiana Pacers have the #1 team in their conference on the ropes ropes right now.
Sunday night’s first half for the Indiana Pacers produced a blistering 80 points and a 41-point halftime advantage over a stunned Cleveland Cavaliers team.
That 80-39 halftime advantage tied an NBA record for the largest halftime lead in a playoff game.
The 129-109 final score failed to reflect Indiana’s total domination of this game as the bench warmers played most of the second half minutes for both teams.
The surprising Pacers are now leading 3-1 in this best-of-seven NBA series.
Cleveland came into this series after a 4-0 sweep of the Miami Heat. The Cavaliers have found the Indiana Pacers to be a much more worthy opponent.
Indiana basketball coach Rick Carlisle is not patting his team on the back, either.
After Sunday night’s demolition of Cleveland, coach Carlisle said, “We haven’t done anything yet!”
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle knows about winning NBA championships!
Rick Carlisle won NBA titles both as a player with the Boston Celtics (1986) and as an NBA coach with the Dirk Nowitzki-led Dallas Mavericks (2011).
He played on the same Boston Celtics teams with Hall-of-Famers Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish.
Carlisle (a back-up shooting guard as an NBA player) decided to become an NBA assistant coach at the youthful age of 30.
His first apprenticeship was working for his former Celtics mentor, Bill Fitch, who had recently become the head coach of the New Jersey Nets. Carlisle spent five years as an assistant coach with the Nets before taking a similar role working for Coach P.J. Carlisimo in Portland.
Rick Carlisle then received his first head coaching assignment in 2001 with the Detroit Pistons. During his two seasons as the top man in Detroit, Coach Carlisle’s teams won the NBA Central Division title but lost both times prior to reaching the NBA Finals.
Larry Legend lures Rick Carlisle to the Indiana Pacers
Carlisle was then reunited with his former teammate Larry Bird in the summer of 2003.
The Boston Celtics legend had just been named the Indiana Pacers President of Basketball Operations.
Larry Bird hired Rick Carlisle to become the team’s new head coach.
The Pacers made the NBA playoffs three times during Rick Carlisle’s four seasons as the head coach.
Coach Carlisle took a year off and worked as a studio analyst during ESPN’s coverage of the NBA.
Rick Carlisle returns to lead the Dallas Mavericks to their first NBA title
The coach returned to the NBA sidelines once again in 2008 as head coach for the Dallas Mavericks.
Carlisle’s new team featured a future Hall-of-Fame player who desperately wanted to win his first NBA championship.
Dirk Nowitzki was entering his early 30’s as Carlisle took over the job in Big D. Their first few seasons together saw more heartaches as those pesky San Antonio Spurs (another former ABA team) knocked Dallas out of the playoffs twice.
In 2011, the Dallas Mavericks finally persisted to reach the NBA Finals to face LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and the heavily favored Miami Heat.
This time, Dirk Nowitzki, Coach Carlisle, and the city of Dallas celebrated the Mavericks’ first NBA title by surprising Miami four games to two in the NBA Finals.
Coach Rick Carlisle’s 13-year stint in Dallas continued to bring several more trips into the playoffs but no additional championship rings.
Rick Carlisle decided to return home again to Indiana as the head coach of the Pacers beginning in June, 2021.
Carlisle’s Pacers have posted an improvement in their regular season record every year. This year’s 2024/2025 team with a tidy regular season mark of 50-32 to finish fourth overall in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.
The Indiana Pacers still have a long way to go to win their first NBA title
The state of Indiana loves its basketball.
The classic movie “Hoosiers” accurately depicted Indiana’s fervent support for basketball.
This season’s Indiana Pacers team has fans in the state’s capital city practically giddy about their chances of winning their first NBA title since joining the league in 1976.
The Indiana Pacers team averaged 117 points per game in the regular season to rank as the NBA’s seventh best offense. They allowed 115 points per game defensively to rank #17 out of the NBA’s 30 teams.
The 2025 Playoff Pacers have widened both of those margins.
Indiana’s offense is up one point to 118 points per game. The defense is yielding 113 ppg in the first few weeks of the NBA playoffs.
The Indiana Pacers have won seven of their first nine playoff games. They crushed #5 seed Milwaukee by a 4-1 margin in Round 1 and now lead the #1 East seed Cavaliers 3-1 heading into Tuesday night’s Game 5 in Cleveland.
These 2025 Playoff Pacers are on fire with deadly accuracy on offense.
The team is currently averaging 50% shooting from the field with an exceptional 40% accuracy from behind the 3-point line. Six Indiana players are averaging in double figures with two more Pacers players averaging nine points per game.
Let’s assume that the Indiana Pacers subdue Cleveland soon and win this series
The next challenge will be either the NBA defending champion Boston Celtics (the #2 seed this year) or the #3 seed New York Knicks. The surprising Knicks took a three games to one lead on Monday in that Eastern Conference semifinal series.
The Indiana Pacers won two of their three encounters with Boston in the regular season. The New York Knicks hold a 2-1 edge over the Pacers this season.
The Pacers finished the regular season by winning eight of their final ten games. They have won seven of their first nine playoff games.
This Indiana Pacers team is definitely on a roll at just the right time coming down the home stretch of the NBA season.
But there is also a long way to go before the Indiana Pacers and their hopeful fans may get another shot at the city’s first NBA title a month from now.
The team must stay focused on winning – one game at a time.
As Coach Rick Carlisle might say, “Pace yourself, Indiana!”