About the Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers are a professional basketball team and one of eight teams in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA).  The Indiana Pacers 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 charter teams of the American Basketball Association (ABA), the Indiana Pacers won three championships in that league between 1970 and 1973. Top players in the Indiana Pacers ABA days were center Mel Daniels and forwards George McGinnis and Roger Brown. After the Indiana Pacers joined the NBA in 1976, they performed dismally for more than ten years. But in the mid-1990s, the Indiana Pacers led by guard Reggie Miller reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 1994, 1995, and 1998. In 2000 the Indiana Pacers reached the NBA Finals for the first time. 

The Indiana 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 Indiana Pacers in scoring and was the league's top rebounder. In 1969-70 the team 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 beat the Los Angeles Stars four games to two. The next season the Indiana Pacers again amassed the ABA's best record, but the club lost in the division finals to the Utah Stars.  The Indiana Pacers utter domination of the ABA continued through the early 1970s. Before the 1971-72 season the team acquired George McGinnis.  The star trio of Brown, Daniels, and McGinnis made the Indiana Pacers 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, averaging just over 29 points per game. That season the Indiana Pacers reached the ABA Finals, where they lost to the Kentucky Colonels. Before the 1975-76 campaign McGinnis decided to re-locate to the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA, and the Pacers only registered a 39-45 win-loss record thereafter.

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

Fast forwarding to the 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 and Hall of Fame player Larry Bird as head coach in 1997. Bird won coach of the year honors for directing the club to 58 wins and 24 losses-the best record in Indiana Pacers history. In the postseason the Indiana Pacers advanced past the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks before being crushed by the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals, 4 games to 3.

In his third season as coach, Bird guided the Indiana Pacers to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games. After the season Bird retired as coach, and the team replaced him with another Hall of Fame player, Isiah Thomas. The current outlook for the Pacers looks good with Jermain Oneal, Ron Artest and Mark Jackson rounding out their starting lineup.