INDIANA PACERS HISTORY 

Indiana Pacers, professional basketball team and one of eight teams in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Pacers play in Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, and wear jerseys of blue, gold, and white. The team was named for Indiana’s history of raising harness racing horses, called pacers, and the pace car used during the Indianapolis 500.

One of the founding teams of the American Basketball Association (ABA), the Pacers won three championships in that league between 1970 and 1973. Top players in the team’s ABA days were center Mel Daniels and forwards George McGinnis and Roger Brown. After the Pacers joined the NBA in 1976, they performed poorly for more than a decade. But in the mid-1990s, teams led by guard Reggie Miller reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 1994, 1995, and 1998. In 2000 the Pacers reached the NBA Finals for the first time.

The Pacers began play in 1967 as an ABA team. In the 1968-69 season the club won the ABA’s Eastern Division, and Mel Daniels led the team in scoring and was the league’s top rebounder. In 1969-70 the club posted the best win-loss record in the ABA at 59-25. Daniels and Roger Brown helped the Pacers win the league championship as the team defeated the Los Angeles Stars four games to two. The next season the Pacers again compiled the ABA’s best record, but the club lost in the division finals to the Utah Stars. Daniels was named the league’s most valuable player (MVP). The Pacers’ domination of the ABA continued through the early 1970s. Before the 1971-72 season George McGinnis joined the team. The star trio of Brown, Daniels, and McGinnis made Indiana one of the highest scoring teams in the ABA, and the team won the ABA title in 1972 and 1973.

In the 1974-75 season McGinnis led the ABA in scoring with an average of 29.8 points per game. He also shared MVP honors with Julius Erving of the New York Nets (later the New Jersey Nets). That season the Pacers reached the ABA Finals, where they lost to the Kentucky Colonels. Before the 1975-76 campaign McGinnis moved to the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA, and the Pacers only registered a 39-45 win-loss record.

After the ABA folded in 1976, the Pacers were one of four teams to join the NBA, beginning play in the 1976-77 season. Although the franchise had captured three ABA titles, the transition to the NBA proved difficult. In the Pacers’ first 13 NBA seasons, the team logged a winning record only once, finishing 44-38 in 1980-81.

Beginning in 1989-90 the club began a string of solid play. Players such as Reggie Miller, center Rik Smits, and forward Detlef Schrempf helped the franchise to four consecutive postseason appearances, but each time Indiana lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Before the 1993-94 season the Pacers hired Larry Brown as head coach and traded Schrempf to the Seattle SuperSonics in exchange for forward Derrick McKey. Brown guided the club to a 47-35 record, the team’s best record since joining the NBA, and the Pacers bested the heavily favored Orlando Magic in the first round of the playoffs. After the upset the Pacers defeated the Atlanta Hawks, but then they fell to the New York Knicks in seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Indiana carried their momentum through the 1994-95 season, posting a franchise-record 52 wins. In the playoffs the Pacers again reached the conference finals, but there the Magic defeated them in seven games. In 1995-96 the Pacers placed second in the Central Division with 52 wins, but the team lost in the first round of the playoffs. The Pacers hired former Boston Celtics great Larry Bird as head coach in 1997. Bird earned coach of the year honors for directing the club to 58 wins and 24 losses—the best record in franchise history. In the postseason the Pacers advanced past the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks before falling to the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals, 4 games to 3.

In his third season as coach, Bird led the Pacers to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games. After the season Bird stepped down as coach, and the team replaced him with another Hall of Fame player, Isiah Thomas. Thomas is well known in the state, having starred at Indiana University in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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