I am probably one of the few San Antonio Spurs fans who was born and raised in Indiana, I have never been to Texas and have no connection at all to the city. But, when you are six years old and handed a basketball video game for the very first time and you have no predetermined fandom, you pick the best team. That team happened to be the San Antonio Spurs; three titles in five years will do that. I think one can safely say I hopped on the bandwagon but I think where I differ from most bandwagon fans is that I never got off. Another title certainly didn’t hurt (they also played the most beautiful basketball ever seen) but I have stayed through the post-Duncan, post-Kawhi, perennial bottom-feeding years. However, with back-to-back ROYs and the second overall pick in the upcoming draft, things are looking up for Spurs fans. If one was to hop back on the Spurs bandwagon, now might be the time to get on. However, this might be the point where I depart from the Spurs fandom. I believe it’s time for me to pivot to the current pride of my home state, the Indiana Pacers.

There is not a more opportune juncture to disembark your current train and hitch a ride on the Pacers train (I guess I shouldn’t say train, this is the Midwest, cars only dammit). They have had back-to-back conference finals appearances and have actually made it to the NBA Finals this year. It certainly was not an easy journey either. Though the less said about Doc Rivers coaching abilities (or lack thereof) the better, Giannis and Lillard are both future hall-of-famers. The Cavaliers play great team basketball (though they often relied on the heroics of Donovan Mitchell). The Knicks, despite Brunson, KAT, and Bridges, are still the Knicks. Now, they are forced to contend with the OKC Thunder, who I also have a lot of respect for. If any other Eastern Conference team had made the finals, I would undoubtedly be rooting for the Thunder. Too bad they’re playing the Pacers. 

This isn’t even an instance of me solely deciding to hop on the bandwagon because they’re in the finals. I have been slowly inching my way towards the Pacers in recent years, this is just the moment in which I have chosen to fully pounce and commit (which may prove to be fatal in hindsight). I enjoy the method in which the Pacers approach and play basketball. In an era of hero-ball and reliance on a particular superstar to shoulder the burden of carrying a team to a title, the Pacers having a more team-centric approach and relying on depth is a breath of fresh air. Yes, the Pacers most likely would not be here without the clutch heroics of Tyrese Haliburton but those opportunities would not have presented themselves without the other members of the team. Had Aaron Nesmith not hit six threes in the final five minutes of regular time in Game one against the Knicks, who knows how the rest of that series transpires. The Thunder are a juggernaut though, they have the MVP and an excellent cast of supporting characters and even if they fail to win this year, they will be perennial contenders for the foreseeable future. The Pacers are going to need to play their best basketball of the season and probably rely on an off-night or two from SGA to bring the championship to Indiana. As a relatively recent Pacers fan (with the spirit of Jim Irsay and Myles Turner’s Legos), I hope they can bring it home because the state of Indiana desperately needs it. 

I mentioned earlier that I had slowly (at a glacial pace) been converting to Pacers fandom, which has been a consequence of me attempting to get in touch with my own Indiana roots. While they both grew up there, neither of my parents were born in Indiana, nor were they devoted sports fans in any sense of the word. The only sports fan in my immediate family seemed to be my grandfather, who was a NASCAR enthusiast. As a young child with an intensifying interest in professional sports, I was stumbling around in the dark for teams to support. The Colts were easy to support, they were an Indiana team that was actually good. Watching Super Bowl XLI is a fond childhood memory (though Devin Hester returning the opening kickoff broke my heart before it even had a chance to form). I even had fish named Peyton, Reggie, and Marvin. However, I’m not here to talk about football and my tender childhood memories. I’ll talk about my tender childhood memories of basketball, or as I should say my lack of them. Growing up, I was decidedly not a basketball fan. I had played a couple seasons of youth basketball and would play in gym class but frankly, I never cared. I was always far more interested in baseball or football, I even got really into tennis at one point, but basketball was nothing more than a passing interest. I chose the Spurs because they were a great team. The Pacers were good in the early 2000s but they never made an NBA finals appearance and they hardly seemed to rise above being a mediocre basketball team. As a child without any sustained interest, I didn’t care. That lack of sustained interest is also the reason I remained a Spurs fan, I had no impetus to pick a different team and Tim Duncan was (still is) my favorite player. 

I should have been a considerably larger fan of basketball than I was. In Indiana it’s practically sacrilegious to not be a fan. I’m from southern Indiana and in the early 2010s, there were a plethora of reasons to be a basketball fan. Roughly an hour and a half drive away from my hometown is the school that inspired the movie Hoosiers. If you drive an hour in the opposite direction, you reach West Baden Springs and French Lick, the birthplace and hometown of Larry Bird. As we practically bordered the state of Kentucky, a number of my classmates were fans of Kentucky or Louisville. Kentucky won the national championship in 2012 and were always serious contenders for deep tournament runs. Louisville won (later vacated) the national title in 2013. Butler went to back-to-back national title games in 2010 and 2011. My very own high school won a state championship in basketball when I was in 7th grade. There were an overabundance of opportunities to fully immerse myself into the world of basketball fandom but alas, this time period was also the nadir of my own personal sports fandom. While I eventually rediscovered my passion and excitement for sports (particularly baseball), anyone attempting to engage me in a serious conversation about basketball was on a fool’s errand, a waste of effort. 

Curiously, I decided to attend Purdue University for my undergraduate education. As anyone knows, when you attend a sizable university that is quite remote from most people you know (the ones you care about at least), freshman year is rife with ample opportunities for self-reflection, self-discovery, and the ability to alter yourself and start anew. At a school with a rich basketball history (yes I know we haven’t won a national title yet, go dust those geriatric banners IU fans), it’s the perfect place to actually start developing an interest in the sport. Which is exactly what happened. I began to care. I dedicated myself to learning more than just the most basic rules and strategies and I shed more than a few pounds going to the on-campus gym and playing pick-up (if you need someone who rebounds and plays defense, let me know). When March Madness came around that year, Carsen Edwards was torching teams (42 points on the best defense in the country!) and it seemed we had a chance to make the Final Four, until heartbreak happened. I had practically reached the summit of elation and then rapidly plummeted into the pit of despair. I remained engaged with the sport, I watched, I knew what was happening in the wider world of the NBA and could even offer my own original analysis at times but I never seemed to attain that same level of interest in the sport. However, there was one key event that I would consider a turning point in my fandom. That event was attending a Pacers game (a 114-97 victory over the Raptors). This was a game at the end of November and the Pacers had no real expectations so it was a fun and relatively relaxed environment but it also showed, outside of college sports, the truly remarkable fanaticism that the state of Indiana has for basketball. Everyone knows that Mackey Arena and Assembly Hall can be raucous and provide an extra challenge for visiting teams but I never expected my fellow fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to be as loud as they were. Even among the throes and dregs of mediocrity, there existed a passionate, passionate fanbase. Which should come as no surprise considering how basketball-mad the entire state is. Fourteen of the sixteen highest-capacity high school gymnasiums are located within Indiana. In wanting to connect with my Indiana roots and truly appreciate basketball, that completely meaningless regular season Pacers game proved to be a turning point after the heartbreak I endured my freshman year.

Despite that being a professional game, I turned my attention away from the NBA and really focused on the amateur game. A 7’4 Canadian named Zach Edey stepped on Purdue’s campus (he once said “thank you” to me after I held the door for him at the campus Chick-Fil-A) and won back-to-back NPOYs and finally lead Purdue to the Final Four, before, yet again, another heartbreak. After graduation, I went back to work at my old high school and the girl’s basketball team was really good and, of course, they waited until I left to pursue my master’s degree before finally winning the state championship (if any of you are reading this, congratulations!!!). The playoff environment in Indiana is nothing short of electric, it is high energy and high intensity and I don’t think anyone would have it any other way. 

Indiana is the state most synonymous with basketball and while I knew that, it took me quite awhile to truly understand it and become just as involved as everyone else. It took me a while to internalize the heartbreak that basketball fans in Indiana have constantly endured. A university from Indiana hasn’t won a Division 1 national championship since 1987 (hopefully Purdue rectifies this soon) and the Pacers, while having three ABA titles, have no NBA titles and this is only their second finals appearance since the merger. The Indiana Fever have Caitlin Clark and I can’t think of a state more fitting for one of the faces of women’s basketball. A fitting combination of state and player to help grow the game. The state of Indiana deserves a title, the people of this absolutely basketball-crazy state, deserve some form of reward or recompense for their undying, unwavering love and support for this sport. As I fully convert my fandom to the Pacers, hopefully they succeed in bringing a title to Indiana. As the saying goes, in 49 states it’s just basketball…

With Love and Yes ‘Cers,

Dalton