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Indiana Pacers thread


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17 minutes ago, 13th&Jackson said:

I grew up with the ABA Pacers. Those were fun teams and the ABA game was more entertaining than the NBA. The fairgrounds coliseum was always 110 degrees with a haze of cigarette smoke. 

They used to broadcast a lot of Pacer's games on I want to say channel 13 which was ABC at the time... Don Hein and Jerry Baker... I remember the lighting in Denver's arena (McNicoles?) was so bad they had to broadcast in black and white rather than color...

I actually played in a church league in Franklin with Hein and Dick White of the 1953 Hoosier champions... Hein wasn't much of a player... Tall... 6'4 or so, and he'd supposedly played college ball... But White, who had to have been mid 40s at the time, could flat play... Lot of former area high school players played in that league and he lit them up... 

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11 minutes ago, KoB2011 said:

Rooting for one team the same as @BGleasis enough. I’d have dropped the Celtics, too. :coffee:

They were a great team... One of sports greatest dynasties... 10 championships in 12 years...

You didn't get to see a lot of NBA games back then, but if you were lucky enough to see Chamberlain vs Russell, it's was awesome... 

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Just now, IUFLA said:

They were a great team... One of sports greatest dynasties... 10 championships in 12 years...

You didn't get to see a lot of NBA games back then, but if you were lucky enough to see Chamberlain vs Russell, it's was awesome... 

Oh I am sure that would’ve been incredible to see live. That’s two of the best to ever lace em up.  

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11 hours ago, 13th&Jackson said:

I grew up with the ABA Pacers. Those were fun teams and the ABA game was more entertaining than the NBA. The fairgrounds coliseum was always 110 degrees with a haze of cigarette smoke. 

But they did have the Marathon scoreboard at one end, with mini-skirted young ladies maually doing the updates.  We usually ended up at the opposite end near the crows nest (if you know, you know).  I remember my dad frequently using the binoculars to "check the score" lol.

For any fellow, old-fart Pacer fans, here's the first part of several of the 1973 playoffsagainst the Utah Stars:

It would have been McGinnis' second or third season - I still marvel watching him hit jumpers with that one-hand shot.

Edited by Zuckerkorn
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14 hours ago, 13th&Jackson said:

The Pacers were next to last in attendance. Does moving their G League team to the same metro potentially increase ticket sales? Or do some folks in the northern burbs say, "I'll just watch the former Mad Ants for a lower price and not drive downtown"

those folks are known as warrior fans in the area where the Mad Ants are moving to.  They'll still show up at Gainbridge in their warrior blue and yellow jerseys

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14 minutes ago, Zuckerkorn said:

But they did have the Marathon scoreboard at one end, with mini-skirted young ladies maually doing the updates.  We usually ended up at the opposite end near the crows nest (if you know, you know).  I remember my dad frequently using the binoculars to "check the score" lol.

For any fellow, old-fart Pacer fans, here's the first part of several of the 1973 playoffsagainst the Utah Stars:

It would have been McGinnis' second or third season - I still marvel watching him hit jumpers with that one-hand shot.

Ah the Stars... Willie Wise, Smellmo (as my Dad used to call him) Beatty... I hated them almost as much as the Kentucky Colonels... 

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16 minutes ago, Zuckerkorn said:

But they did have the Marathon scoreboard at one end, with mini-skirted young ladies maually doing the updates.  We usually ended up at the opposite end near the crows nest (if you know, you know).  I remember my dad frequently using the binoculars to "check the score" lol.

For any fellow, old-fart Pacer fans, here's the first part of several of the 1973 playoffsagainst the Utah Stars:

It would have been McGinnis' second or third season - I still marvel watching him hit jumpers with that one-hand shot.

That was great. Look at the pace of play

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11 hours ago, IUFLA said:

The Pacers 🙂 

I was a Boston Celtics fan as a kid, probably because they won every year... I remember sitting in the Martinsville Moose Lodge (better than Mackey Arena 😁) bar with my Dad and about 10 other men watching game 7 of the 66 finals... I was the only person rooting for the Celts...

When the Pacers came on the scene, I dropped the Celtics... This was our team... Loved the red, white, and blue ball (Marathon gas had them cheap if you bought like 10 gallons of gas... @ .29 a gallon... Those were the days)... Went to an early Pacers game at the old Fairgrounds arena... Smelled like dung, but the Pacers beat the Anaheim Amigos and I was hooked...

Loved them all through the ABA days, but the screwing they took to get into the NBA put them so far out of being competitive for years, I lost interest.

I followed the 1998 playoff run, and that screwing at the hands of the Bulls (and refs)...

Haven't been interested in the NBA, including the Pacers, for a while now...

Guess that's on me ☹️

Yeah, the "deal" to join the NBA was criminal.  Years later the NBA bent 180 degrees in the opposite direction for new franchises (Orlando, for example).  I will say that the deal the owners of the St. Louis team made has to be one of the smartest in history (something like 25% of the four former-ABA teams TV revenue per year forever).

The inexplicable officiating did nothing but reinforce my suspicion that the NBA is, shall we say "manipulated".  That, combined with the Pacers penchant for totally blowing their draft choices (often out of financial necessity) and foolish trades led to my current total disinterest in pro basketball.

BTW, my uncle ran a Marathon station and I got plenty of Pacer swag back then (including the lousy vinyl red/white/blue ball).

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12 minutes ago, Zuckerkorn said:

I will say that the deal the owners of the St. Louis team made has to be one of the smartest in history (something like 25% of the four former-ABA teams TV revenue per year forever).

The NBA finally bought out the Spirit's owners for $500 million a few years back... All together they made $800 million on the deal... 

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35 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

The NBA finally bought out the Spirit's owners for $500 million a few years back... All together they made $800 million on the deal... 

Yes, the Silna brothers bought the Carolina Cougars for $1 million, moved them to St Louis for two seasons and were paid $800 million 

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14 hours ago, Steubenhoosier said:

Fort Wayne was rated the #2 minor league market last year and has been in the top 10 in 8 of the 9 years of the rankings. The Komets are the second oldest minor league hockey team in existence. The Tin Caps, high A farm team of the Padres— Tatis started his pro career here- have annually won the designation of having the best minor league stadium in the country. The Mad Ants are the new team on the block, having been in existence since 2007. They have split some of their home games with other cities to generate statewide support for the team. An old high school buddy has been their play-by-play guy since the outset. I don’t know if he’ll want to make the drive down for games or not. Ft Wayne just hosted the Division III National Basketball Championship for the second straight year. They have hosted games in the Women’s tournament. They have hosted games in the NCAA Volleyball tournament. They have a huge basketball facility that hosts multiple AAU tournaments every year, just finished one this weekend that Flory Bidunga’s team won the U-17 bracket. The city has an awesome youth hockey program and holds tournaments hosting teams from all over the country. We have hosted professional golf tournaments in the feeder league levels. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the FW Curling Club. We host competitions every year drawing teams from throughout the US and Canada. Every member of the Gold Medal winning Men’s team from Sochi have competed at our club. Kory Dropkin, who just won the World Mixed Doubles Championship has curled at our club several times. We have hosted the Women’s Olympic teams from China and Scotland.

I’d say FW is very entrenched in the world of sports!

Steubenhoosier, you should work on Fort Wayne's Chamber of Commerce.  🙂  I have lived in Fort Wayne my entire life.  Been to many, many Mad Ants games.  The G-League overall doesn't draw a lot of fans. Honestly, it is not a great on-the-floor product.  Very sloppy, selfish play at times with guys just trying to showcase their individual talents at the expense of team success.  That being said, Fort Wayne supported its team as well as any city in the league.

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15 hours ago, 13th&Jackson said:

The Pacers were next to last in attendance. Does moving their G League team to the same metro potentially increase ticket sales? Or do some folks in the northern burbs say, "I'll just watch the former Mad Ants for a lower price and not drive downtown"

That's exactly what I was thinking.  In fact, I'd go a step further.  They should move the Pacers out of the city and into Hamilton County as well.  Downtown suuuucks.  

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15 hours ago, FKIM01 said:

The truth likely lies somewhere in between.  My daughter graduates IU dental school Saturday and I can't wait to get her out of Indy. 

https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/crime/two-dead-in-double-shooting-on-indys-near-north-side

This literally happened in the alley next to the house she rents with three other people (mostly dental students), early Saturday morning about 30 minutes before she got home.  The male victim was their neighbor.  No idea on motive...the police literally told her they thought it was purely random. 

As a father, that's scary as hell to me.

I am sorry to hear that, but in the end it is a city.   Unfortunately these things happen. More often than not most of the murders/shootings are not random acts of violence, but people caught up in bad stuff killing other people caught up in bad stuff.   Shootings, guns, violence is happening everywhere, including the burbs nowadays, but of course they are going to happen more in population centers.  

The only thing depressing is the lack of vibrancy that came with people working from an office versus home.  Unfortunately, with that transition, some business have not been able to make it out, but have definitely seen downtown slowly recovering from the pandemic.  It's not there yet and won't be for a while, but it will get there.  

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12 hours ago, KoB2011 said:

This.

I work from home so I’m not down there every day like you, but I have no issues when I’m down there for Colts or Pacers games. I don’t go downtown for dinner really anymore, but that’s more because the north side has a ton of great choices and if I’m hauling kids or paying a babysitter, I’d rather not make that drive just for food. 

The northern burbs focus on urbanization has definitely hurt Indy in the short-term.  Lots of the great restaurants that would have opened downtown previously seem to pop up there.

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6 hours ago, 13th&Jackson said:

As a casual fan I'll just say this. The Pacers put out a video montage of TJD today. Showing moves, dunks, shots,etc....it wasn't a normal predraft workout video. Bias aside...if one of the 26, 29, and 32 picks and he's available...take him. I cringe of them still taking Leaf over OG. I know you can't burn an early pick on him but one of those numbers works for me.

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1 hour ago, Seeking6 said:

As a casual fan I'll just say this. The Pacers put out a video montage of TJD today. Showing moves, dunks, shots,etc....it wasn't a normal predraft workout video. Bias aside...if one of the 26, 29, and 32 picks and he's available...take him. I cringe of them still taking Leaf over OG. I know you can't burn an early pick on him but one of those numbers works for me.

That may not be good for TJD to end up a Pacer. I’m not really sure of the fit with the current roster - I think the Pacers will likely try to package a few of those picks and 7 to move up. 

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1 hour ago, Seeking6 said:

As a casual fan I'll just say this. The Pacers put out a video montage of TJD today. Showing moves, dunks, shots,etc....it wasn't a normal predraft workout video. Bias aside...if one of the 26, 29, and 32 picks and he's available...take him. I cringe of them still taking Leaf over OG. I know you can't burn an early pick on him but one of those numbers works for me.

I don’t know if the Pacers actually use any of those picks. They are really dedicated on moving up in the draft or possibly landing a second late lottery pick. They’ve already confirmed they aren’t taking 5 picks so look for them to move them. They already have a roster loaded with young prospects. 

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Pacers will be one of the few teams with significant cap space. They likely will have to take on salary in a trade to meet the salary cap floor so I anticipate them helping a team avoid luxury tax and maybe taking a one sided trade. Hope we are smart…23 free agency is pretty poor but 24 is looking a lot better. 

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1 hour ago, dgambill said:

Pacers will be one of the few teams with significant cap space. They likely will have to take on salary in a trade to meet the salary cap floor so I anticipate them helping a team avoid luxury tax and maybe taking a one sided trade. Hope we are smart…23 free agency is pretty poor but 24 is looking a lot better. 

Couple picks and take on an expiring contract could get us a good result. 

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1 hour ago, KoB2011 said:

Couple picks and take on an expiring contract could get us a good result. 

The other option is what they did this year with Myles…and that’s possibly re-sign Halliburton and front load the contract.

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