Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers is an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete inside the National Basketball Association as a part of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were originally founded in 1967 as a member of the American Basketball Association, then became a member of the NBA as part of the 1976 ABA – NBA merger. They play their home games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The team takes its name from Indiana's association of the pace cars of the Indianapolis 500 and the racing harness industry. In early 1967 a group of six investors pooled their resources in buying a team in the nascent American Basketball League. During their first 7 years, they played at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum. In 1974, they relocated to the new, luxurious Market Square Arena in downtown Indianapolis where they were performing for 25 years. New Indiana Hoosiers excelled Bob "Slick" Leonard became the franchise's head coach with the Pacers early in the second season, succeeding Larry Staverman. Leonard was soon to become a Pacers juggernaut. His squads have been buoyed by the good play of superstars such as Mel Daniels, George McGinnis, Bob Netolicky, Rick Climb, Freddie Lewis and Roger Brown The Pacers have become-and have been-the most successful franchise in ABA's history, winning three ABA Championships in four years. In total they played in the ABA Finals, which was an ABA record, five times in the league's nine-year history. By the 1993–94 season, Larry Brown was brought along as Pacers 'coordinator, and Pacers' general manager Donnie Walsh made a then highly contested deal when he sent Schrempf to the Seattle SuperSonics in exchange for a little known Derrick McKey and Gerald Paddio. Yet finishing off with an NBA-era franchise-high 47 wins the Pacers played their season's last eight games. They charged for winning their first NBA playoff series victory in a first-round sweep past Shaquille O'Neal and the Orlando Magic and pulled off an upset by upsetting the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks in the semifinals of the tournament. In 2006, despite the absence of Reggie Miller, the Artest saga and other critical injuries, the Pacers made the playoffs for the 14th time in 15 years. We were also the first road team to win a playoff series for the first round in Game 1. However, New Jersey took Game 2 to bring Indiana back to the series at 1–1. In Game 3, Jermaine O'Neal tallied 37 points, as the Pacers took a 2–1 lead in the series. Nonetheless, the Nets took four and five games in the 3–2 series to take a lead. Anthony Johnson scored 40 points in Game 6 but with the Nets leading 96–90, the Pacers season ended. The Pacers finished the 2006–07 season as one of the worst seasons in franchise history. For the Pacers, who finished with a 35–47 record, nearly anything that could have gone wrong did. The tipping point of the season will be an 11-game losing streak that started round off the all-star break. The key reasons for the team's defeats were injuries to Jermaine O'Neal and Marquis Daniels, lack of a capable back-up point guard, divisive trade halfway through the season that threatened team morale, poor defensive efforts and becoming the NBA's worst offensive team. The April 15 loss to the New Jersey Nets put the Pacers out of the playoffs for the first time since the 1996–97 season. Following a good off season in 2019, the Pacers have named four new starters on the opening night. Holdover Myles Turner was joined by Domantas Sabonis, a reserve-turned starter, and recent arrivals including Malcolm Brogdon, T.J. Warren, and Jeremy Lamb who are expected to become a top backup as all-star guard Victor Oladipo returns from injury. Despite a 0–3 start to the season the Pacers had a 26–15 record halfway through the season and ranked them fifth in the Eastern League. Sabonis was later named All-Star of the NBA for the first time in his career.