2005 Indiana Pacers | The Best NBA Teams to Never Win a Title

2005 Indiana Pacers | The Best NBA Teams to Never Win a Title

We are fresh off an NBA season where the Pacers were just one win away from winning their first championship. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. But this isn’t the first time the Pacers had a championship caliber team. 20 years ago, the Pacers built a contender, but it all basically fell apart on one night in Detroit. Yeah, he had Reggie Miller at the end of his career, Germaine O’Neal, Ron Artes, Steven Jackson. All three of those guys in their prime coming off making the conference finals. Had a great start to 05. Then the worst night in NBA history happened. while since we uploaded a video in this series. 15 months to be exact, but you know who’s counting? Yeah. Who’s really count besides us, I guess. So, we wanted to remind people the rules real quick. Obviously, the first rule, the team can’t win a championship. I mean, that’s pretty clear. It’s in the title. Yeah, pretty obvious there. But the second rule that sometimes people get tripped up on is the team’s core could also not won a title either in previous or following seasons. A good example of this, of course, the 2016 Warriors. They’re not eligible because they won in 2015 and 2017. And then another team kind of similar, 2013 Spurs. They’re not eligible because they won in 2014. With all that being said, let’s get into the Pacers. Before we talk about the 2005 season, let’s break down how this team was built. Throughout the ‘9s, the Pacers were one of the best teams in the East. They made the conference finals four times over the decade, but just failed to reach the finals during that stretch. Yeah, mostly just because of Michael Jordan. Yeah, basically. Yeah, they were led by Reggie Miller who played his entire career with the Pacers and 2005 would actually end up being his final season. Pacers finally broke through and made the NBA finals in 2000, but unfortunately for them, the Shaq and Kobe Lakers were waiting and they went down in six games. Following offseason, they traded Dale Davis to the Blazers for a young big man by the name of Germaine O’Neal. O’Neal didn’t really get much run on that insanely deep Blazers team, but immediately would break out for the Pacers and became an all-star for them. But for the next few seasons, the Pacers would regress from that high of the NBA finals. They’d go out in the first round for three straight years. During that time though, made some really key additions. Picked up Jamal Tinsley with the 27th pick of the 01 draft. He’d go on to be their starting point guard for most of the 2000. So great value late in the draft there. Then before the trade deadline in 2002, they traded Travis Best, Norm Richardson, Jaylen Rose, and a 2002 second round pick to get back Ron Mercer, Brad Miller, Kevin Ali, and Ron Art Test. Of course, he’s now known as Meta Sanderford Artist, formerly known as Meta World Peace. Maybe change his name again in there sometime. I I swear he changed back to Ron Artest at one point. It’s tough to keep up these days. We’re just going to call him Ron Artest cuz it’s it’s easier to pronounce than Sandford Art or whatever the he’s going by nowadays. During that off season, they also drafted Freddy Jones with the 14th pick out of the greatest school in the history of the planet, University of Oregon. Okay, it’s funny. He became a key rotation piece for them in the following years. Couple other guys we’ll mention, Al Harrington, who the Pacers drafted in the 98 draft. He had become one of the better six men in the NBA during the early 2000s. And then Jeff Foster, who spent his entire 13-year career with the Pacers, he became their starting center for the 2004 season. But following that 2003 season, where again they went out in the first round for the third straight year. They fired head coach Isaiah Thomas. Yes, that Isaiah Thomas, the Pistons point guard from the 80s who was shortly on his way to New York to go ruin the Knicks. Yep. And you bring in Rick Carile who coincidentally enough is the same Rick Carile who’s coaching the Pacers right now. You know, the more things change, the more they say the same. Yeah, exactly. Just led them to the finals. You know, was also coaching a very good team back then. And with Rick Carle now at the helm, the Pacers had a breakout season in 2004. You start the year 14-2. Just never looked back. They eventually finished the season 61-21. capture the first seat out east, get the best record in the NBA. Germaine O’Neal makes his third all-star team. He’s second team allNNBA, even finishes third in MVP voting at just age 25. You had Ron Artes making his first all-star team. He was third team allNNBA and won defensive player of the year. And then you had solid contributions from Al Harrington, Reggie Miller, and Jamal Tinsley as well. They would sweep the Celtics in round one. They took out the Heat in six in round two, setting up a conference finals matchup against the Detroit Pistons. I’m so mad that we were like too young to watch this. I guess like we were seven, could have tuned in, but I think we were six. Six, whatever it was, we’re right on that edge where like you can’t remember very much from when you’re that age, right? Yeah. Regardless, this would have been such a fun series to watch. Yeah. I mean, game one of the series, back and forth, but the Pacers would hold on to win by four thanks to a late three from Reggie Miller. Game two, the Pistons respond. Even the series, winning 7267 in just a defensive war. Of course, this game is known for Taan Prince’s iconic chase down block on Reggie Miller. Outside of LeBron’s block in the 2016 Finals, maybe the best defensive play in NBA history. I mean, it’s it’s amazing. And Germaine O’Neal’s reaction to it just like so funny. He’s like, “Fuck God.” He’s mad. Also, fun fact about this game. Rasheed Wallace the day before at practice straight up guaranteed a win to the media. Okay. He was he’s just like I don’t care what happens. Like we will win game two. And they went out and did it. I mean more valid than Charles Barkley guaranteed. I’ll tell you that. Pistons would then hang on to win game three 8578. So they have a 2-1 lead in the series. But the Pacers responded with a 15-point win in game four. So we’re all even headed back to Indiana. But unfortunately for Pacers fans, that would be their last win of the season. The Pistons would win game five by nearly 20. Rip Hamilton really balled out that game and eventually they’d close things out in Detroit to end Indiana’s season. I mean, if the Pacers win this series, there’s a decent chance they could have won the finals this year. Of course, the Pistons would go on to beat the Lakers in the 04 finals. I mean, sure, Indiana didn’t have Ben Wallace. They weren’t quite the same defensive team, but they were still a very good defensive team. Kind of played a similar style. I was going to say they didn’t have like Ben Wallace or Taan, but our test and Jermaine O’Neal is no slouches on the defensive end. Yeah, exactly. But regardless, going into the ’05 season, they were going to be one of the main contenders. And during the ’04 offseason, the Pacers got even better. They acquired Steven Jackson in a side trade with the Hawks, sending out Al Harrington in return. A lot of players on the team felt like he was the missing piece for them. He was a guy with championship experience from his time with the Spurs. Would really fit this team perfectly. Reggie Miller did break his left hand during the preseason, so he would miss the start of the year. But even without Reggie, they raced out to a 7-2 start. Best record in the East to start the season. That set up their first game against the Pistons since the Eastern Conference Finals. It’s kind of forgotten. Pacers dominated this game. They were up by 15 on their way to a dominant win. Run our test and Germaine O’Neal combined for 44 points. But [ __ ] Jamal Tinsley just had to go to run our test and say you can get your foul now because apparently Ben Wallace had like hard fouled our test the year prior in the conference finals and like this was the time to get him back, right? So he commits the hard foul on. Ben Wallace starts up a scuffle, someone throws a beer at him and now we’ve got the malice at the palace. Like we can’t show the full clips of it because we did that in a previous video and we actually got demonetized. But I mean you had our test charging into the stands. Apparently he goes after the wrong guy by the way. He did. Yeah he does. He goes after the wrong guy. Steven Jackson gets in there. He’s swinging. Germaine O’Neal punched a fan. Just bad night for the league honestly. Yeah. I would say the worst night in NBA history. Worst night in Pacers history. I mean the fans were completely out of line like the fans. Yeah. Throwing some at a player that’s just disgusting. Like I’m going full Keemstar mode. Those fans, man, those guys suck. No, I agree. Leave it on the court. The players can handle it. They can get their fight. If someone needs to get suspended, that’s fine. Throw in something, do anything like that is just outright disgusting. If you’re Ron our test though, Stephen Jackson, you also can’t do that. That’s completely out of line. It’s absolutely insane. And David Stern, the dictator of the NBA, he did not hold back. Run our test. Suspended for the rest of the season. That’s 86 games if you include the playoffs. Stephen Jackson, he gets 30 games. And Germaine O’Neal also got 25 games. Although he did appeal and it got reduced to 15. And even Reggie Miller, who wasn’t even playing at the time, you know, just suited up. He got suspended a game for leaving the bench. So, just like I said, the worst night in Pacers history. It goes without saying, their title hopes are done at that point. I mean, they win three of the next four games. You follow that up with a seven-game losing streak, though, and they basically float around 500 the rest of the season. They did have a strong finish in April, bumped them up to 44 and 38, got them the six seed out east, but still like I said, like completely derailed their season. Before that all happened though, on February 11th, Reggie Miller would announce he would retire at the end of the season. We’ll touch on it more at the end of the video, but you really have to feel for Reggie. He was so loyal to the team. It was his last chance to win a title, and on one night, the mouse at the Palace completely just ruined that. I know nowadays we love to meme on like player podcasts and whatnot, but there’s actually a really great clip from Steven Jackson’s show, All the Smoke, where he’s talking with Reggie about it, and he basically he just like apologizes to Reggie for, you know, I’m guessing he still feels some kind of guilt about it that helped cause the downfall of Reggie’s last chance to win a title. And Reggie just looked at him. He’s like, “Hey, young fella, like it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t your fault.” They like almost come to tears over it. It’s it’s a really good conversation for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but it’s really nice that those two guys, you know, 20 years later can come to terms with this. Yeah, Reggie Miller Classack, not surprised from him. Anyways though, in the playoffs, they once again match up with the Boston Celtics in round one. They actually upset them in seven games. I mean, they were the six seed, won game seven on the road in Boston. Get this, 97 to 70, a 27point win. And it was the second worst home game seven loss in NBA history at the time, but it did get bumped down to third here recently when the Mavericks laid their beatd down in Phoenix just 3 years ago. If that’s number two, what’s number one? I think there was like a game in 1948 I saw, which I mean, does it even really count? No, it doesn’t count. And ironically enough, the Pacers matched up with the Pistons once again, this time in round two. At one point though, they did lead this series 2-1 after stealing game two in Detroit and winning game three at home. But the Pistons would go on to beat them three straight times, knock them out of the playoffs in six games. So wrapping up with this team, I mean, obviously there’s no guarantee they win the title or even make the finals if the Malice of the Palace doesn’t happen. I mean, the Pistons beat them last year in the conference finals, and they very well could have done it again, even if they did have Ron our test. The Heat were also on the come up that year, winning 59 games, securing the first seed with the addition of Shaq. And even if they did get out of the East, they’d have to get through the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs that won 59 games and ran through the Western Conference. But all that being said though, I mean, the Pacers just had a huge what if in the 2025 season. This might be a bigger what if. I mean, they were so close to beating the Pistons in the 04 Eastern Conference Finals. You have that same court and you add a young Steven Jackson to that. A single night derailed what could have been an incredible season for them. Yeah. And again, you really feel for Reggie. I mean, he is the guy you think of when you think of the Pacers franchise. Even for us, never saw him play live. He’s still the first person you think of when you think of the Pacers. And this was the last chance for him to cap off his great career with a championship. And unfortunately, it just didn’t happen. And after this season, the Pacers would quickly regress for the rest of the 2000s. Ron Artes would return for the ‘ 06 season, but he’d only play in 16 games and then demanded a trade. He was then traded to Sacramento in January for Pesia Stoyakovich. I got to be real. I had no idea before looking into this that Pasa even played for the Pacers. Well, that’s how uneventful it was. Yeah, exactly. He’s there for a cup of coffee and then he’s off to New Orleans. They would end up as a six seed again, but this time they’d get knocked out in the first round by the Nets in six games and that’d be the last time this core made the playoffs as the Pacers would miss it for the next four years. Steven Jackson was traded to Golden State in ’07 and finally Germaine O’Neal was traded to Toronto in 2008. So, just wrapping up the legacy of this team. I mean, they’re basically completely forgotten about. It’s really interesting because like the key pieces of this team, the young pieces at least like Artes, Germaine O’Neal, and Steven Jackson. You can make an argument that all three were at their best with the Pacers, maybe with the exception of Jackson. And yet, when I picture them in my head, I picture them on other teams. Like, when I think Ron Artest, I think Houston and the Lakers. When I think Steven Jackson, I think Golden State. And when I think Germaine O’Neal, I honestly think Miami, cuz that’s where he was when I first started watching it. Even like his ending years in Boston, I think of before his time in Indiana. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense. For me, it’s basically the same. I remember Germaine O’Neal like NBA Live06, so I kind of think of him on the Pacers, but I think you were spot on with our test and Stephen Jackson, for me at least. And besides that, as we’ve already touched on, it’s just another what if for Pacers fans. I really feel for Pacers fans because over the past 30 years, they’ve had some really good teams. They’ve had some championship contenders and for one reason or another, it just has never happened. So, really feel for them. one day you guys are going to get that title. It’s going to be great, but it just unfortunately hasn’t happened. This looked like the team that could do it. I mean, you had the star power, you had the defense, you had the veteran leadership, you had a really good head coach, but everything would be ruined on that one night in Detroit.

We are fresh off an NBA season where the Pacers were just one win away from capturing their first NBA title. This wasn’ the only time the Indiana Pacers have had a championship team though. In the early 2000s they built a contender to give Reggie Miller one last chance at a title, but everything would fall apart during the Malice at the Palice.

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