Indiana Pacers

Indiana Pacers, American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis that plays in the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). While playing in the American Basketball Association (ABA), the Pacers won three league championships (1970, 1972, 1973).

The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the original members of the ABA, taking the name “Pacers” in honour of Indiana being home to the Indianapolis 500 automobile race and the state’s long history of harness racing. Coached by Bob (“Slick”) Leonard (1968–80), the Pacers lost in the ABA finals in their second season but won the ABA title the next year with a team led by forward Roger Brown, one of the young league’s first superstars, and centre Mel Daniels. In 1971 the Pacers added forward George McGinnis and proceeded to win two consecutive championships in 1971–72 and 1972–73. The team joined the NBA alongside three other ABA franchises in 1976, having never missed the playoffs in its nine seasons in the upstart league.

Initially, the Pacers were much less successful in the NBA, posting just one winning season in their first 13 years in the league. In 1987 the team drafted shooting guard Reggie Miller, who would go on to become the Pacers’ career scoring leader. Miller was joined on the team by centre Rik Smits in 1988, and in 1989–90 Indiana began a streak of seven consecutive postseason berths. The team reached the conference finals in 1993–94 and 1994–95, losing in seven games each time. After missing out on the playoffs in 1995–96, the Pacers advanced to the conference finals once more the following season under the guidance of first-year head coach Larry Bird but were eliminated by the eventual-champion Chicago Bulls in another seven-game series. Indiana returned to the Eastern Conference finals in 1998–99, only to lose at that stage for the fourth time in six years.

The Pacers finally broke through to the NBA finals in 1999–2000 after defeating their frequent playoff rival the New York Knicks in the conference finals. However, the Pacers lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games and were denied their first NBA title. Following the season, the Pacers experienced a great deal of personnel turnover, which included the retirements of Smits and Bird and a trade for young forward Jermaine O’Neal. O’Neal and Miller helped the team to five straight playoff berths from 2000–01 to 2004–05, which included another loss in the Eastern Conference finals. After Miller’s retirement in 2005, Indiana made one more postseason appearance (a first-round loss in 2005–06) before beginning a rebuilding effort that resulted in a return to the playoffs in 2010–11.

A young Pacers team featuring All-Star forward Paul George and centre Roy Hibbert advanced to the conference finals in 2012–13, where Indiana lost in seven games to the Miami Heat. The Pacers raced out to a 16–1 start in 2013–14 and finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference. However, the team sputtered down the stretch of the regular season and, after squeezing by a 38–44 Atlanta Hawks team in a seven-game opening playoff series, the Pacers won their way into another appearance in the conference finals, where they were again eliminated by the Heat. George broke his leg during the following off-season, and the Pacers failed to qualify for the playoffs while missing their star player for most of the 2014–15 season. Indiana rebounded to qualify for the postseason in 2015–16 but lost a seven-game series in the opening round. The team was again defeated in the opening round of the postseason the following year, a sweep at the hands of the defending-champion Cleveland Cavaliers that was decided by the smallest cumulative point margin for a four-game playoff series (16 points) in NBA history. George was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder during the off-season, and in 2017–18 a rebuilt Pacers team surprisingly improved on the previous season’s record and lost a seven-game series to the Cavaliers in the first round of the postseason. Despite losing star guard Victor Oladipo to a season-ending injury in January 2019, the Pacers rallied to another playoff berth in 2018–19.