Post-Game Grades: Pacers Embarrass Warriors to Kick Off the Second Half of the Season

Now that was a nice win! And with what NO did with Chi tonight i feel a lot better about how our game with them turned out too. Come on Pacers!!!!

dwain

Lmao at the grades. Good game. Great way to start after the break

Wow, what an ass kicking. GS seems weird to me with both Ellis and Curry in there. It doesn’t really seem to be working for them all that well, either. Good to see Granger hit some shots.

A little off topic – only 12,111 showed up to see it. I know attendance tends to lag performance, but at what point should we worry that the Pacers still have the second lowest attendance in the league? How long will Simon put up with that? I can’t imagine the Pacers moving, but good lord, the attendance has been horrible for the last three or four years now.

I’m 25, live in chicago (grew up in indy), and make under 45k a year… yet I get to 5+ pacers games a year. why won’t my hometown get behind this team? we need to get that attendance up asap or else I fear the worst (my favorite team in all of sports bolting for some other town…)

Realist has a point. I know a lot of the kids on my campus think that the Pacers stopped existing when Reggie retired (nevermind that the majority of us were born in the early 90′s and thus shouldn’t be able to remember the classics, though I remember The Shot Over MJ and his absolute heroics in the Nets game), and our team didn’t give them a really good reason to not believe that. Keep heart though, once we get into the playoffs again, these guys will announce to the world that Indiana’s ready to reclaim the sport of basketball once again.

@Jesse: I remember attending Pacer games (in the mid ’80s) as a kid at MSA with the curtain. When they would lift that curtain (for “big” games),it would look like BankersInsuranceScamLifeBuySAndSellAir Fieldhouse looks now – mostly empty (although the empty seats were concentrated in the top of the sombrero looking sides). MSA was smaller and louder, though.

I keep hoping that the city will, once again, embrace the Pacers. Man, 10 years ago it was all about the Pacers, and I could get cheap tickets to Colts games (and sneak down, hehe). Now, it is just the opposite. This city certainly is fickle. Well, I suppose most are, but most (in the NBA, anyway) are bigger and have a larger pool of fans to draw from. That still doesn’t explain why Utah, Sacramento, Milwaukee, etc. are drawing more fans, however. I guess I shouldn’t really judge based on a Tuesday night game’s attendance, but even the weekend games attendance has been relatively low. I think there has only been one sell out thus far (Miami, I think). I know I’ll hit a couple of games this spring, but I’m cheap, so Simon won’t even notice. :D

I have to agree with Mike; the difference between the MSA days and now (aside from the cast, residual effects of The Brawl, the economy, and other more difficult-to-quantify factors) is the impressive evolution of the television broadcast. The devices are pretty cheap per inch, and HD quality is extremely impressive, and with one extra device that my television provider provides, I can also pause, rewind, and play PG dunks over and over and over.

Also, I believe there are several who would rather save their “sporting event” money to purchase one ticket to a Colts game, still. That could easily change in the next 3 years.

That said, I just bought a five game pack.

I think it’s simple, Pacers fans need to see an exciting playoff, like the original Knicks-Pacers, to get them behind this team. Until they win a playoff series I don’t think you are going to see people buy-in.

I would go see games if I lived in Indy but I don’t anymore. I think most casual fans need something to really get them excited, more than beating up the Warriors and the Bobcats. I’m sure getting crushed by Miami doesn’t give people a lot of hope for the playoffs.

Interesting that attendance is being discussed the same day that Grantland debuts a 3 page story about the Brawl. Go to grantland.com and read that story and it will remind you of why everyone bailed on that team, as a Pacers fan it’s a tough read. I’m a season ticket holder and although I’m disappointed that attendance is still down, there is a noticable difference in the Fieldhouse this year. For the last few years the majority of the crowd seemed incredibly bored by the product on the court. That isn’t the case this season. While the numbers may not show a difference, the fans this season are engaged and seem genuinely excited to see the team play, creating a much better environment in the Fieldhouse. There have been a few games that were close to a sellout if they weren’t an actual sellout, and the Denver game a few weeks back was a great experience. The crowd was engaged the entire game and for the entire 4th quarter the crowd was loud chanting ‘defense’ every time the Nuggets had the ball. It was the loudest I’d seen that building in a long time (I don’t count the playoffs since game 4 was all Bulls fans and game 3 was a tentative crowd that seemed to be waiting for a Pacers collapse, including some jerk who I got in an argument with when he decided that I shouldn’t be standing in the 4th quarter of a playoff game with 3 minutes left). But nonetheless, people in this city are starting to notice the Pacers and I think attendance will start to come around. I think the best thing that could happen to speed up the process would be to win the first round series and meet the Bulls in the second round. If we could push a Bulls series to 6 or 7 games people around the city will notice.

I used to live in Indiana. Reggie made me love basketball. I wanted to be just like him.

I moved to Cali but continued to support the Pacers. I got knocked off my soapbox after the Brawl.

Suddenly, they were exposed as a disgusting group of strip-club thugs. Reggie was no longer the voice/face of the team. They were an embarrassing team to root for. Even Reggie, for the first time in his career, openly discussed a desire to play elsewhere.

As the team struggled to rebuild, many poor decisions were made. Namely Murphy/Dunleavey and MDaniels, JJack, Kareem Rush, TJ Ford. And drafting. Shawne Williams should have been Rondo, Lowry or Millsap. Then traded #11 pick to get back Harrington, should have been used on Thad Young, Stuckey or even guys like Fernandez, ABrooks, WChandler, GDavis, Splitter and MGasol were available. Hibbert was a nice pick, but the Bayless/BRush pick should have been used on Ibaka, Batum, George Hill, CLee, Hickson, Thompson, Ryan Anderson, Pekovic, DJordan, Speights, McGee, Dragic, Chalmers… basically they blew that pick big time. Well, I could go on forever about the horrid decision making from 2004-2008. but I’ll sum it up in two words: Jim O’Brien.

The Pacers are better now. The pieces are nice. They have good players and good people. They are a fun team to root for and I do openly. If I lived in Indy I would be going to so many games, they are so much cheaper than Lakers/Clippers tix.

I think the fans will come back around. But the doldrum years were really bad. The team was not fun, the players were not ones I would care to defend, and worst of all the decision making left little hope for the future. I still have the taste in my mouth, but it is slowly being washed away with each game.

I think the Pacers will win a first round series and that will recapture a lot of the fan base. I can see them selling out playoff home games vs Chicago/Miami in round 2. Then next season, when no players are lost and maybe another key piece is added, the fans will really come around. It should be jumping in MSA… I mean conseco… I mean whatever it is now arena, very soon!

@JRC The warriors were with out curry tonight. They generally play better when he’s healthy. (reference to your first post).

Maybe they’ve bailed on the experiment already. :D I only caught a few minutes of the game. Who was that other guard then… oh dear, Brandon Rush! His stat line actually looks pretty decent, but when I was watching, they looked out of sorts. Of course, I’m also basing my opinion on the few other games I’ve seen the Warriors play. When one of them isn’t hurt, the don’t seem to flow well together. I don’t know, I’m not an NBA GM for a reason though. ;)

I am with Ronal…I think this blog explains it all. Only 22 comments on here, but at the beginning of the season there were only 10 maybe. This team was dead and for two reasons only: I blame Donnie Walsh and Ron Artest (O’brien didnt help either). Ron for the Malice in the Palace (PS article on Grantland right now about it, pretty crazy) and Donnie for keeping some of the guys around for too long after the fact. Keep up the good work Larry. I still get people who comment on my pacer gear I wear (at work, out downtown) and they say there are thugs…it amazes me how removed they are from the game and for how long.
Pacers fans are coming back. I used to work for them and it was hard trying to give away shirts because the crowd was so slim. But I bought season tickets for the first time this year. The nuggets game and the bobcats game were actually pretty full. I was impressed. Boston Miami were full as well. Only game I was disappointed with attendance was the Orlando game the night before the superbowl, how was not every seat filled? I think people are warming up, we will always be small town market but we should never be 2nd to last in attendance.
They didn’t really lose attendance because of their record. Whats surprising through all the crappy seasons they had, they never were horrible, but that is probably why they were struggling for so long. The hard picks are the picks the pacers have had for the last 6 years. The 13th and 14th picks were you barely don’t make the playoffs. They losted all their fanbase because of the embarrising off court actions they had. As you can see in a small market it takes about 6 years and a good basketball team to get a new face started.
Also doesnt help when the Pacers get not national attention except when its bad. When is the last time ESPN or TNT aired a pacer game?

I believe you all make some valid points when it comes to the attendance issue. Yes HDTV is awesome. Yes, there is a hangover from the “thug” era still. Yes, you would like to have a winning product on the court. Yes, Indianapolis fans are fickle. All of these factor in somewhat in a reason someone might not go to the game. One issue that was somewhat alluded to earlier is the fact that ESPN, ABC, and TNT have not broadcast a single game in a number of years. The league is star driven and major market driven. Just as David Stern wants. Other people outside of our market are not going to tune into a Pacers v Hawks game, even though they are battling for playoff position. But until that happens, the casual Indianapolis sports fan isn’t going to give a rat’s behind, or until they win a playoff series like poot just said. When you are dealing with bandwagon fans, they jump ship at the first sign of trouble, and are the last to come back even though we have an awesome young team. BTW, who wants to bet the colts don’t sell out after 2 more losing seasons? Anyone want to take the under on that?

Lots of good insight here. Good point about the evolution of home media systems, although that would suggest that more teams would struggle to sell out.

Poot–where are you getting your attendance history numbers? I was trying to find those the other day.

The consensus seems to be that if the Pacers make a playoff run (or at least 2nd round), more fans will take notice.

It’s just weird that so many other clubs who are never in the playoffs have more fans support right now.

I guess I’m sort of annoyed that so many people have noticed the attendance issue. Even The Onion with the recent sidebar “Empty seat wins Pacers bobblehead” or something to that effect.

I was at Game 4 last year, and that was truly pathetic. The players didn’t deserve that.