golden state warriors bloggers roundtable (Photo: TheSportsFanJournal.com)
We got a chance to ask two Indiana Pacers bloggers three questions about their championship-contending team. We also threw in a reference to the 2004-05 Pacers, who were championship-built but derailed by the “Malice At The Palace” just seven games into that season.
That’s the team (and the year before it) which the Golden State Warriors‘ Jermaine O’Neal often refers back to when he speaks with us as well as local media.
Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group writes:
“That’s one of those situations where it’s always going to linger with me, always going to linger with me, ‘What if?’ O’Neal said last week after the Warriors’ shootaround at The Palace. “What if that doesn’t happen? Where would we be?”
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He let out a long sigh.
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“Things happen, man.”
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The Nov. 19, 2004, incident during the Pacers-Pistons game began as an altercation between players before Indiana’s Ron Artest charged into the stands after having a drink thrown on him by a fan.
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At one point in the chaos, O’Neal punched a fan who had trespassed onto the court near the Pacers bench to confront Artest. O’Neal had to be restrained from going after another fan near the tunnel as he was dragged to the locker room while fans hurled drinks.
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“It was a very regretful situation in general,” O’Neal said. “I’ve been on record as saying what I did was in the flow of helping my teammates and in a situation where it wasn’t about basketball. It wasn’t about anything but survival. Now if I had an opportunity to take it back and it never happened, absolutely, because it changed the concept of a city.”
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“Here I’m into my 18th year, and I still haven’t won a championship,” O’Neal said. “I’m always going to believe, no matter if I win a championship or not, that was our time.”
As you’ll see below, Pacers fans feel the same way.
1. Jermaine O’Neal yesterday was quoted as saying the Pacers would’ve won the championship, or had a great chance, that year of Malice at the Palace, if not for the Malice happening. Did Pacers fans think so too and do they look back at that year as one that slipped away, as JO does now?
Jared Wade, EightPointsNineSeconds.com: I can’t speak for all Pacers fans, but I thought they were the favorites to win the title that season. With injuries and other unforeseeables, it’s impossible to say they would have won for sure, but they had a better team on paper than anyone else. JO was a beast at both ends at his absolute peak and the player then known as Ron Artest was arguably even more valuable to the team by being one of the better perimeter defenders in the past 30 years. As we saw, the team had some combustible elements, but if everything went according to plan, I couldn’t see them losing a seven-game series.
Will Rettig, AlwaysMillerTime.com: The 2004-05 Pacers team, which ended abruptly with the brawl at The Palace of Auburn Hills, happened to be Reggie Miller‘s last season and unfortunately, could be viewed as a season that slipped away. However, that team also had a number of players with bad attitudes in addition to Miller on the cusp of retirement. If you look at that ’04 team and then the team Indiana has now, there is no comparison in talent and chemistry. There is much more chatter surrounding a championship now than any other season since 2000, when the Pacers last reached the finals. Fans are much more engaged with the team now, as well, because the players are so committed.
2. General sentiment of the Lance Stephenson All-Star snub, if any?
Wade: I think he deserved to get the nod. He has clearly had a better season than Joe Johnson, for one, and has been an excellent, two-way contributor for the best team, by record, in the NBA this season. He is the team’s most dynamic creator and, when he is playing at his best, has a higher upside than all but a handful of players in the league.
Rettig: Lance Stephenson was undoubtedly an All-Star snub. No reason to even argue whether he or Joe Johnson should have had a spot on that Eastern Conference roster.
3. With the Pacers being in the championship talk this year, and with Larry Bird‘s trade deadline deal to get someone as high-caliber as Evan Turner, what’s your take on including Larry Legend on a Mt. Rushmore of greatest all-time players who became coaches or managers? There’s a short-list to begin with, that probably includes Jerry West, Pat Riley, Joe Dumars, and Danny Ainge.
Wade: Tough to say without a full list in front of me, but he has to be making his way into the conversation. Jerry West and Pat Riley have put together titles and are clearly well ahead of Bird. But if this team the Legend has put together ever wins a ring, he would have to jump up near their level — particularly when you realize that he would have won his trophy without any high draft picks or big-name free agents (with apologies to David West). Then again, he isn’t even the team’s best executive. That honor still belongs to Donnie Walsh, who put together the 90s teams that regularly got to the Eastern Conference Finals and the strong early 2000 squads that contended almost annually before imploding in the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Rettig: I think Larry Bird has done a tremendous job as team president of the Pacers. He has quietly built a contender and one that plays with a ton of heart and effort. Obviously, his playing days need no persuading as to whether he was one of the all-time greats. Not to mention Bird was coach of the Pacers before becoming a team executive, and led them to a finals appearance in 2000. His accomplishments as a player, coach and now team president certainly make him a strong candidate to be placed on a Mt. Rushmore of players-turned-coaches/executive if there was to ever be one.
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