Hating the average pace

April 4, 2007


The Indiana Pacers lost last night 100-85 to the hated Detroit Pistons.

Good. I’m glad.

Wait, what? What’s this? Mr. Can’t Stand The Pistons is happy they won? Mr. Believes The Pistons Cost Reggie Miller A Championship is actually rooting against his home team?

Yes. I’m officially rooting against the Pacers. Against the team that I consider my favorite, not just in basketball but in all sports. I’m hoping against hope that they lose every game from here on out. I welcome tanking. I have no pride left. How could I?

It’s been a trying three seasons for Pacers fans. We’ve watched our legend – the best player to ever put on an Indiana uniform – robbed of his title by the most widely publicized brawl in sports history. We’ve weathered high predictions, only to find our star player wants to be traded. We’ve taken on a horribly overrated player, only to lose him when free agency comes around. And now? We’re suiting up a team of random players with horrible contracts.

There’s no end in sight. We’re saddled with a bench full of scrubs and a team that can’t even contend in the league’s weakest conference. And get this – if the Pacers end up with the 11th pick or worse, they have to give it to Atlanta. It’s part of the trade that brought Al Harrington back to Indianapolis. First pick through tenth, we keep it. Otherwise, it’s a wasted draft.

The Pacers are horrible this year. But, unfortunately, they’re not horrible enough to matter.

In professional basketball, being a team stuck in the middle is hell. It’s impossible. The league is set up so that the best teams are always the best. Only by divine luck or pure organizational savvy can you create something out of nothing. The same teams are always winning. The same teams are always losing. You need to hit the lottery twice in order to create something new, or else you need to be able to pick up talent for less than it’s worth.

Larry Bird is not proving himself well as the Pacers’ GM. He’s made some boneheaded moves. He’s drafted well, but he’s locked in at a mid-teens pick every single year.

What we need is to cut our losses. Call this season a wash. Call next season a wash as well. Get some lottery picks – someone we can actually develop into a quality player.

In order to get a decent draft pick, we can’t just suck. We have to suck more than the other teams in the league. We need to collapse monumentally. We need to lose every game from here on out. Because the worst could certainly still happen – we could miss the playoffs and STILL be without the consolatory reward: a young draft pick. The worst of both worlds.

That’s the Pacers, my friends. Always in the middle. Indy .500. The most average team ever to grace the league.

It pains me to root against my own team. But it’s necessary, for the good of the team, for the good of the city. Indianapolis doesn’t need to think about basketball, not after their beloved Colts won the Super Bowl. We can’t forget their plight – the Pacers are better than this.

So you’ll have to forgive me if I root against the Pacers. I can’t help it. I’d like to still think there’s hope for the team.

Most of us Pacers fans are tired of rooting for average. It’s just too exhausting.

Tags: Basketball, Indiana Pacers, Sports |

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Who needs Artest?

March 9, 2007


Please. Stop.

Now someone is suing the Pacers’ MASCOT.

From an AP article on MSNBC:

It never ends for Pacers — mascot sued
Man claims ‘Boomer’ tackled him from behind, caused permanent injury

After taking part in the free-throw contest, the lawsuit states that Jackson began to leave the basketball court but was tackled from behind by the team’s mascot, “Boomer,” a 6-foot-tall blue cat with gold whiskers.

The employee who knew about Jackson’s back surgery immediately told the mascot about the surgery, and Boomer responded by kicking at Jackson’s legs, the lawsuit alleges.

I don’t know what’s more ridiculous: Boomer the Mascot
• That someone is suing the mascot.
• That the mascot has the same mean streak as the rest of the Pacers that have been filtered through the locker room over the past three seasons.
• That the Indiana Pacers’ mascot is, inexplicably, a large feline.
• That I just saw Boomer a few weeks ago, at Crunch’s Birthday Party, and didn’t even realize that the Pacers HAD a mascot.
• That the mascot’s name is, just as inexplicably, Boomer.

It wasn’t that long ago that the Pacers were 29-24, looking to squeeze into that 4th playoff spot and get home court advantage for the first round. Now, after losing seven in a row, we’re two games under .500 and sinking fast.

Just stop this season, please. I thought it was bad being a Timberwolves fan. But at least they have a bright young rookie and Kevin Garnett. In Indiana? We’re the 7th seed in a horrible conference, which means that even though we suck, we’re still not going to get a lottery pick.

And now even our mascot has taken to the usual Pacer-esque drivel.

*Sigh*

Tags: Basketball, Indiana Pacers, Sports |

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Wishing a rumor away

February 28, 2007


Please. No.

From the Dallas Morning News:

Reggie on the radar?

No way of knowing how serious it is yet, but Reggie Miller could be a candidate for the Mavericks’ vacant roster spot.

Owner Mark Cuban brought up Miller’s name before Monday’s game against the Hawks. The former Indiana Pacers star is the No. 1 3-point shooter in NBA history. He retired after the 2004-05 season, but remains in excellent physical shape.

And joining the Mavericks would give him the chance to do about the only thing he never did in his illustrious career – win a championship.

Avery Johnson said he and president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson have been discussing options for the open spot, but are not close to any decisions.

Miller currently is a member of TNT’s broadcast team.

It’s a silly rumor, but it’s a real one all the same. If this happens, and Reggie concedes to win a title the cheap way, I will lose a lot of respect for him.

Please, Reggie. Stay away from basketball. Look at what happened to Jordan — disappointment.

Tags: Basketball, Indiana Pacers, Sports |

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Trading for the sake of trading

January 17, 2007


Apparently, the Indiana Pacers’ “white boy” quota is not being reached, what with Pacers stalwart Austin Croshere being shipped off this past summer.

Taking that into consideration, the Pacers have made a trade with the Golden State Warriors, effectively swapping our set of underachieving small forwards with a new group of underachieving small forwards (and one underachieving center).

The full deal: Indiana trades Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington, Sarunas Jasikevicius and Josh Powell to Golden State for Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy, Ike Diogu and Keith McLeod.

Why?

I applaud the decision to get rid of Stephen Jackson, a player that takes too many shots, both on and off the court. I am fine losing Al Harrington, even though he was heralded as the missing piece in the Pacers lineup all summer – for the second time in his career, mind you. Jasikevicius was supposed to be a star – the best player in Europe before coming to the Pacers. He failed, never cracking the starting lineup even as Jamaal Tinsley slowly declined into mediocrity. Josh Powell – who?

But to get Mike Dunleavy? Troy Murphy? Two players that are as likely to change the outcome of a game as Jermaine O’Neal is of leading a team? Does anyone else understand this? Is there something about these four former Warriors that I should be knowing?

Maybe the talent ends up being even. Is that enough to warrant taking on Mike Dunleavy’s contract and a new mix-up in team chemistry? The loss of distraction is nice, granted, but I don’t usually believe in addition by subtraction.

The only thing I can think if is that General Manager Larry Bird wanted more white guys on the team. What other explanation is there, aside from executing trades for the sake of trading?

That’s all. I just wanted to see if anyone else could figure this out. My hits are going down, now that Patrick Lalley and I have apparently buried the hatchet (much to Todd Epp’s disappointment).

Tags: Basketball, Indiana Pacers, Sports |

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Yet another black eye

December 17, 2006


December 16th, 2006. Denver Nuggets at New York Knicks.

I’m a Pacers fan. So I’ve seen this all before. Last time, it was November 19, 2004.
The seconds are ticking down. The winning team is still playing hard, even though the game is in the books and the bench should be getting garbage time. The losing team commits a hard foul. And, seconds later, all hell breaks loose.

Before, it was the Pacers going into the stands, fighting Pistons players and fans. This time, no fans were harmed. But it was the same thing – players spilling into the stands, haymakers after the fight was nearly calmed down, excuses from every corner of the world.

When it happened two years ago, I had the Pacers’ back. I believed that they were provoked, that they acted out of emotion, that they should ultimately be forgiven for what came as common sense to men who had grown up fighting for their place in society.

After a few months, however, I realized the weight of the actions. I knew that these players, young men who make millions of dollars for playing a game, should have the foresight to keep their heads on straight. With everything that is at risk, no player should resort to fighting. As soon as you get your first paycheck, you’re at work on that court. You’re an adult.

Now, we have an act that could put the league’s top scorer out of the league for a handful of games – maybe up to a month. We have a bunch of overgrown bullies brawling all over the court because they couldn’t handle being blown out of a game, and the team blowing them out couldn’t handle holding back a little and keeping their egos in check. We have a huge brawl – one that has effectively set the NBA back two years.

Right back to where we were November 2004. Right back to when we were suspending Ron Artest for the rest of the season, setting up court cases, and wondering where the league could go from here.

Who is to blame? Really, everyone is. Every player who left the bench, who claims they were protecting their teammate’s back, yet did nothing but escalate the problem. Every coach who stood by and watched as their teams spun out of control, who may have mandated the initial hard foul from the bench, who attempted to justify the action of his team as some sort of heroic deed. Every official who didn’t notice the slow buildup, who couldn’t see the culmination of this event becoming Malice at the Palace Part II. Every fan who concedes that paying millions of dollars to any young man is going to somehow turn them into a picture perfect role model.

Everyone who didn’t see this coming. Again.

No one will remember the $1.5 million that Carmelo Anthony gave to fund a youth development center. No one will remember how the NBA Cares, or that they continue to fight illiteracy, or that they have adopted a new, more fan friendly persona. No one will remember that this new era of NBA Superstar – the Carmelos, the Wades, the LeBrons – are attempting to usher in a newer, cleaner, more Fan-Tastic brand of professional basketball.

No. Now the league’s sitting on trial, sporting another black eye – another shiner that will help NBA disparagers continue their campaign against the league. For all the good that the NBA has tried to do over the past two years, for everything that has been done to put a positive spin on a thug-friendly league, for every ounce of effort that went into making people forget the brawl in Detroit two years ago, the outcome of this fight will negate every last bit.

The good things that happen in basketball don’t make the papers. Only the bad. And this, like two years ago, is very bad. So as the NBA sinks further into the abyss, we can only hope that a trio of saviors can rescue the game from oblivion, much like Magic, Jordan, and Bird did after the brutal days of the mid-70s, of Kermit Washington’s punch and warring leagues.

Unfortunately, those saviors have already come. Even more unfortunately, one of them was involved deeply in this case; the prodigal son of the Le’Wad’elo trio. And most importantly, no amount of positive spin – no in depth, sympathetic Sports Illustrated article or NBA Inside Stuff expose – will let people forget this.

The public has been burned before. Why believe the league again?

Tags: Basketball, Indiana Pacers, Sports |

5 Comments

Another black eye

October 10, 2006


This is not news anymore. Pacers players Steven Jackson, Jamaal Tinsley, Marquis Daniels and Jimmie “Snap” Hunter were all questioned after an incident that culminated with Jackson firing a few rounds into the air from his gun.

Realistically, it wasn’t news to begin with – it was just the same old Pacers. The “bad boys” of the NBA. Except, of course, these “bad boys” aren’t as talented as the 88-90 Detroit Pistons. These “bad boys” won’t be doing anything but forcing comparisons with the more recently troubled Portland Trail Blazers, a team so mired in its own problems that no one could focus on what they were being paid for: playing basketball.

I don’t even know what to say anymore. It, admittedly, is pretty frustrating. The Pacers are my team. Above any sport, and above any professional franchise, I stand behind the Indiana Pacers more than any other entity. They have a history of “underdoggedness,” of being nearly good enough, of being, really, the pre-2004 Boston Red Sox of the NBA. (No offense to the Clippers, or Cavs, or other teams that haven’t won a championship – the Pacers franchise has actually had contending teams. Unfortunately, they met the juggernaught Chicago Bulls and the dynastic Los Angeles Lakers at their peak.)

Indiana is the Fertile Crescent of basketball, just like Texas is the motherland for football and both St. Louis and New England areas are baseball hotbeds. Indiana holds the history of basketball, and the Pacers have always held on to that history, to their own history. They hire Indiana legends (Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas) and they built the best basketball stadium in the game.

But over the past five years, they haven’t been able to put together a team that doesn’t self-destruct at the first possible chance. Ron Artest was the main culprit, but Stephen Jackson has been right there beside him, pouting and coming up short in every way possible. Jamaal Tinsley fights hard for his contract and nothing else, and now they’re dragging Marquis Daniels – a hopeful young star – into their selfish lair of mediocrity.

Nice job, guys.

The Pacers organization made a promise this year to be more fan friendly, to be more of a positive presence on and off the court. “It’s Up to Us,” their campaign said. And then this happens. Stephen Jackson ends up on top of a car. He pulls out his licensed firearm and shoots it into the air. And then, they find marijuana in their getaway car.

Everyone is rallying around Jackson. And Reggie Miller thinks it stinks.

“That is a black cloud. That is a punch in the gut for [team CEO] Donnie Walsh and [team president] Larry Bird.”

“You shouldn’t stand behind a player that is someone slapping you guys in the face during the middle of training camp being out at a strip club at 3 o’clock in the morning shooting it up like it’s the Wild, Wild West,”

I agree with him. I’m tired of standing behind this team. I’m tired of making excuses and telling myself that “they’re basketball players” and “this won’t affect their team this year” and “this will pass, we’ll be alright.”

I don’t believe it anymore. The Indiana Pacers have officially disgusted me. I still root for them, but until they can prove that they have some small desire to be a quality basketball team, that they are willing to do what it takes to win, to smash the losing mentality that seeps into the team after an altercation like this, they won’t get my respect.

After all, it’s up to us.

Tags: Basketball, Indiana Pacers, Sports |

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#31 vs. NYC

May 26, 2006


In honor of these wonderful NBA Playoffs — three semi-final series going to seven games, the Mavs and Suns fighting for the Western Conference Championship and guaranteeing me a team to root for until the Finals are over, and the Pistons already losing a game at home — I bring you the best moment in my short lived Pacers fandom: the domination of Reggie Miller and the meltdown of the New York Knicks.

Of course, the comments for this movie on YouTube say a lot about Knicks fans: it was a clear foul call, apparently. Well, from this video, it looks like the guy slips, not that he was pushed. Of course, I’m the wrong person to say anything — Reggie could have decked John Starks and I would have considered it a ticky tack foul call.

Anyway, enjoy that. I’ll be camping — expect an auto-post sometime this weekend.

Tags: Basketball, Indiana Pacers, Random YouTube, Sports |

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