There was a special feeling in the city. There was an excitement throughout Bankers Life Fieldhouse all day Tuesday, awaiting game five of the Pacers-Magic first round series.
Pacers basketball hasn’t been relevant for say, about seven years, the last time the team won a playoff series.
Up 3-1, looking to send the Orlando Magic home for good, Indiana played with a game seven mentality. 105-87, the blue and gold got the win, but most importantly took the series.
This is a big, no, monumental step forward for Indiana. With the victory, they shed their past and glanced ahead to what’s to come.
No more bad boys, no more getting in trouble at strip clubs or bars, and no more internal problems. A team that fans can get behind, a team that fans can really latch on to, is here.
Larry Bird first did very special things while head coach for three years. Now as president of basketball operations, he is seeing his creation all come together.
Just this year — George Hill, David West, Lou Amundson, and Leando Barbosa — have all been brilliant pickups and influenced the team greatly. Bird looks like knows what he’s doing now, huh.
What the Pacers are doing is greater than Bird and greater than the team. It’s about the organization and the team. Tuesday they won their first playoff series in seven years, since the 2004-05 season, and it was their first time clinching at home since 2000. For the Pacers, this was something many of them were not used to. No longer, because it will become the norm.
They’re back, baby.
Their return to prominence seems all too familiar for hoops fans in Indiana. This year, 60 miles south in Bloomington, the Hoosiers overcame so many hurdles in their way. They overcame three straight embarrassing losing seasons, and went all the way to the Sweet Sixteen. I couldn’t help but see and note the parallels.
You bring in a coach players can get behind. He surrounds himself with winners and guys that the players respect. Then you decide what kind of players you want to bring in and can bring in. But most of all on the players side, you build your team through the draft, or recruiting for colleges.
Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert, Tyler Hansbrough, and Paul George are all influential impact guys that the Pacers took in the draft. They were the core and a group that has stuck with this team.
This series win feels so good on many levels because of how they did it. No shortcuts, no trials. Building slow is no easy task and it’s easy to get impatient…especially the fans. Bird and his staff stuck to their strategy of bringing in high-character guys with talent and a great work ethic. The results sure have been satisfying.
The lethargic fan base is troubling but after the team finally produced results when it mattered in the playoffs, hopefully that’s enough for them to buy back in. Other than the “no superstar” thought, there really is no reason not to bleeding blue and gold. Maybe it’s the fan base or city, but it’s time Bankers Life Fieldhouse be sold-out without discounting tickets, having specials, or hosting a big name team to town.
Indiana will most likely face the all-star cast of the Miami Heat next series in what would be a clash of two very different and put together teams. Miami will most certainly be the favorite, as they are to win the whole thing. But don’t count the Pacers out. They have had favorable results lately against the Heat and in a games now late into the season. Here, when bodies are run down, the bench will important and Indiana has that.
The Fieldhouse was rocking Tuesday when Indiana did something they hasn’t done in seven years. There’s no reason for this team, who appeared on national television just once during the regular season, to stop now.
Indiana is a basketball state, always has been and always will be. And this series win feels oh-so-good for everyone, as the Pacers finally burn their past and walk into the bright future that awaits.