scoring 27 points off the bench in Game 3<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m trying to make sure the dream ends well, which means \u2026 winning a championship.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Pacers, winners of three ABA titles in the early 1970s, have never won an NBA championship since joining the league during the 1976-77 campaign. In fact, if it weren\u2019t for the \u201cSave The Pacers\u201d telethon that was engineered by former assistant general manager Nancy Leonard, there might not even be an NBA franchise in Indiana. Leonard, 93, is the widow of former Pacers coach, GM and color commentator Slick Leonard, who coached the team to its three ABA championships and died in 2021. While brainstorming with her eventual Hall of Fame husband, Nancy Leonard came up with the idea to start a 16 1\/2-hour telethon July 4, 1977, to sell 8,000 season tickets, which was the number the franchise needed to keep from moving or being shut down. The Pacers sold 8,028.<\/p>\n
The journey from that dire past powers their defiant present. The Pacers aren\u2019t supposed to be here, and they don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have that belief like, \u2018It\u2019s us against everybody,\u2019\u201d Siakam said. \u201cWe are where we are (because of it).\u201d<\/p>\n
But where they\u2019re still trying to go? That\u2019s a place even some of the game\u2019s greatest couldn\u2019t reach. Allen Iverson never won a championship. Neither did Charles Barkley nor Patrick Ewing. Even Miller, who, unlike the others, spent his entire 18-year career with one franchise, couldn\u2019t deliver the Pacers a title. The 59-year-old is still loved unconditionally by the fans of his former franchise, but there\u2019s pain in his heart, too. There always will be.<\/p>\n
The incompleteness haunts Miller, as he explained recently on the \u201cAll the Smoke\u201d podcast. As he of all people would know, it\u2019s one thing to be a legend; it\u2019s another to be a champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need to go back and watch them,\u201d Miller said of his agonizing playoff losses. \u201cIt is a nonstop loop in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twenty-five years after Miller had his best shot at a ring, falling in six games to the Shaquille O\u2019Neal and Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers, he\u2019s been courtside during these finals, cheering on his former team. Miller and Haliburton shared a big hug on the court after Game 6, with Miller staring into Haliburton\u2019s eyes, as if he could see all the dreams he fell short of being resurrected in his successor.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s victory officially put the Pacers as close to an NBA championship as they\u2019ve ever been. But close isn\u2019t close enough. Haliburton, whose three game-winners in these playoffs have propelled his team to this moment, won\u2019t accept that. Nor will his peers. They have no interest in being the lovable underdogs or admirable challengers. Their ultimate goal, as they prepare for Game 7 on Sunday night, is to shock the world.<\/p>\n
As one hoist of the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy would reveal, misfit champions are still champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to find a way,\u201d Mathurin said. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re playing away against a great team and a great crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we have is us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iowa State coach Steve Prohm on why Tyrese Haliburton has always been that guy.<\/p>\n
(Top photo of Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton: Joe Murphy \/ NBAE via Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Their voices were excited but low. Their faces were beaming but serious. Their celebrations were joyful…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1267,1260,1268,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-4513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-indiana-pacers","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}