|
|
Indiana Pacers started play in 1967 as an ABA team. In the 1968 season the club won the ABA 's Eastern Division, and Mel Daniels lead the team in score and was the league's top rebounder. In 1970 the club posted the finest win-loss record in the ABA at 59-25. Daniels and Roger Brown help the Pacers win the league championship as the team beaten the Los Angeles Stars four games to two. The subsequently 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 mainly precious player (MVP). The Pacers' domination of the ABA sustained through the early 1970s. Before the 1971-72 season George McGinnis connected the team. The star trio of Brown , Daniels , and McGinnis made Indiana one of the uppermost scoring teams in the ABA , and the Pacers team won the ABA title in 1972 and 1973.
In the 1974-75 season McGinnis led the ABA in score with an standard of 29.8 points per game. He too shared MVP honors with Julius Erving of the New York Nets (later the New Jersey Nets). That period the Pacers reached the ABA Finals, where Pacers lost to the Kentucky Colonels. Previous to the 1975-76 campaign McGinnis moved to the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA, and the Pacers only register a 39-45 win-loss record.
Following the ABA folded in 1976, the Pacers were one of four teams to link the NBA, beginning play in the 1976-77 season. Although the permit had captured three ABA titles, the change to the NBA proved hard. In the Pacers ' first 13 NBA seasons, the team logged a winning record only once, final 44-38 in 1980-81.
Beginning in 1989-90 the club started a string of solid play. Players such as Reggie Miller, center Rik Smits, and forward Detlef Schrempf help the permit to four successive postseason appearances, but every time Indiana vanished in the first round of the playoffs.
Previous to the 1993-94 season the Pacers hired Larry Brown as head coach and traded Schrempf to the Seattle SuperSonics in swap for forward Derrick McKey . Brown guide the club to a 47-35 record, the Pacers team 's best record because joining the NBA, and the Pacers worsted the a lot favored Orlando Magic in the primary round of the playoffs. After the upset the Pacers defeated the Atlanta Hawks, but t hen they fell to the New York Knicks in seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Indiana carried their momentum through the 1994-95 season, redistribution a franchise-record 52 wins. In the playoffs the Pacers once more reached the conference finals, but there the Magic defeated them in seven games. In 1995-96 the Pacers placed second in the mid 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.
|
|
|
