1997–98 Indiana Pacers Season
The 1997–98 NBA season was the 22nd season for the Indiana Pacers in the National Basketball Association, and their 31st season as a franchise. During the off-season, the Pacers hired former Indiana State University, and Boston Celtics All-Star legend Larry Bird as their new head coach, acquired All-Star forward Chris Mullin from the Golden State Warriors, and signed free agent Mark West; Bird and Mullin were once teammates on the "Dream Team" from the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. The Pacers struggled early in the regular season losing five of their first seven games, but then won 15 of their next 18 games, and held the best record in the Eastern Conference at 33–13 before the All-Star break. The Pacers won nine of their final eleven games of the season, and returned to the NBA playoffs after a one-year absence, finishing in second place in the Central Division with a 58–24 record, and earning the #3 seed in the Eastern Conference; it was also the first tim ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Larry Bird
Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend" Bird is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He is the only person in NBA history to be named NBA Rookie of the Year Award, Rookie of the Year, NBA Most Valuable Player Award, Most Valuable Player, Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award, Finals MVP, 1982 NBA All-Star Game, All-Star MVP, NBA Coach of the Year Award, Coach of the Year, and NBA Executive of the Year Award, Executive of the Year. Growing up in French Lick, Indiana, Bird was a local basketball star. Highly college recruiting, recruited, he initially signed to play college basketball for coach Bob Knight of the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball, Indiana Hoosiers. However, Bird dropped out after one month and returned to French Lick and attended a local colle ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mark West (basketball)
Mark Andre West (born November 5, 1960) is an American former professional basketball player. A center from Old Dominion University, West was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round (30th overall) of the 1983 NBA draft. Early life West was born in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and was raised in Petersburg, Virginia. He attended Petersburg High School. College West played four years at Old Dominion University (ODU) where he hauled down 1,113 career rebounds, shot 56 percent from the floor and scored 1,308 career points. In 1980 and 1982 West was named ECAC-South Tournament Most Valuable Player. He also led the nation in blocked shots in 1980 and 1981 and completed his career with 446 career blocks for a 3.8 per game average. He was declared an All-American three times. West performed three triple doubles (points, rebounds, blocked shots). He had 12 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocks on October 4, 1980. West then had 16 points, 10 rebounds and 10 blocked shots against ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Travis Best
Travis Best (born July 12, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player, who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and in Europe. High school career Best attended Springfield Central High School, starring on teams that amassed a 69–4 record in his three seasons, earning the Lahovich Award as the top player in Western Massachusetts from 1989 to 1991. After his junior season, he was named a second-team Parade All-American. During his senior season, Best scored a state-record 81 points in a single game. With then-sophomore teammate Edgar Padilla, a future UMass standout, Best led his 25–0 team to the 1991 Division I state championship and a No. 15 ranking in the final USA Today Top 25. After earning Gatorade's Massachusetts and New England Player of the Year honors, Best was selected to play in both the McDonald's All-American Game and McDonald's Capital Classic, earning first-team ''Parade'' All-American honors and being the only guard chosen f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jalen Rose
Jalen Anthony Rose (born January 30, 1973) is an American sports analyst and former professional basketball player. In college, he was a member of the University of Michigan Michigan Wolverines, Wolverines' "Fab Five (University of Michigan), Fab Five" (along with Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson (basketball), Ray Jackson) that reached the 1992 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, 1992 and 1993 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, 1993 National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, Men's Division I Basketball Championship games as both freshmen and sophomores. Rose played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a small forward for six teams, most notably alongside Reggie Miller on the Indiana Pacers team that made three consecutive Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference finals and reached the 2000 NBA Finals. He retired in 2007 with a career average of 14.3 points, 3.8 assists and 3. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Antonio Davis
Antonio Lee Davis (born October 31, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, and New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also played for Panathinaikos B.C. in Greece and Philips Milano in Italy. Davis is also the former president of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). On October 31, 2012, ESPN announced the hiring of Davis as a studio analyst for NBA broadcasts. He is also currently a co-host/analyst on SiriusXM NBA Radio. College career Davis played college basketball at UTEP under coach Don Haskins from 1986 to 1990. Teaming up with fellow future NBA-All star Tim Hardaway, Davis helped the Miners win 25 games and earn the seventh seed in the 1987 NCAA tournament as they defeated the number ten seed Arizona in overtime by a score of 98–91; they would, however, lose in the second round to Iowa by a score of 84–82. The next year, Davis started 30 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mark Jackson (basketball)
Mark A. Jackson (born April 1, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player who was a point guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the St. John's Red Storm men's basketball, St. John's Red Storm and was selected by the New York Knicks in the first round of the 1987 NBA draft with the 18th overall pick. He played in the NBA for the Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz, and Houston Rockets in a career spanning from 1987 to 2004. After retiring from playing basketball, Jackson became a broadcast commentator for ESPN and American Broadcasting Company, ABC alongside his former coach Jeff Van Gundy and play-by-play man Mike Breen. He also worked as an analyst for YES Network, The YES Network's New Jersey Nets games. In 2011 the Golden State Warriors hired Jackson as head coach. He coached the team for three seasons, but was fired in 2014 despite leading the Warriors to conse ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dale Davis (basketball)
Elliott Lydell "Dale" Davis (born March 25, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player who played center and power forward. Career Davis was drafted by the Indiana Pacers with the 13th pick of the 1991 NBA draft and spent the first nine years of his career with them. He quickly established himself as the team's starting power forward and was the workhorse of the Pacers' outstanding teams in the mid-1990s. He routinely averaged double-digits in points and near double-digits in rebounds throughout his Pacers career and left the franchise as the team's all-time rebounds leader in their NBA era. (The Pacers were an original member of the American Basketball Association for several years before joining the NBA.) Following the 1999–2000 season, in which Davis was named to the All-Star team and the Pacers made it to the NBA Finals, the organization decided it was time to rebuild with a younger group of players. They traded Davis to the Portland Trail Blazers in ex ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rik Smits
Rik Smits (born 23 August 1966), nicknamed "the Dunking Dutchman" is a Dutch former professional basketball player who spent his entire career with the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The center was drafted by the Pacers out of Marist College with the second overall pick in the 1988 NBA draft. An NBA All-Star in 1998, Smits reached the NBA Finals in 2000. Early life and college career Smits was born in Eindhoven. He started playing basketball at age 14 at PSV–Almonte in Eindhoven. Smits left for the United States in 1984, where he played for Marist College for four years. In 1986, Smits led Marist to the ECAC Metro Conference tournament Championship and advanced to play in their first NCAA tournament in school history. In 1987, he led the Red Foxes to 20 wins for the first time in its Division I history and another appearance in the NCAA tournament. Smits briefly appeared in the 1988 film ''Coming to America'' during a scene f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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All-NBA Team
The All-NBA Team is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) honor bestowed on the best players in the league following every NBA season. The voting is conducted by a global panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. The team has been selected in every season of the league's existence, dating back to its inaugural season in 1946. The All-NBA Team originally had two teams, but since 1988 it is typically composed of three five-man lineups—a first, second, and third team. From 1956 through 2023, voters selected two guards, two forwards, and one center for each team. This contrasts with the voting for starters of the NBA All-Star Game, which has chosen two backcourt and three frontcourt players since 2013. The NBA's sister league, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), announced late in its 2022 season that it was changing the composition of its All-WNBA Teams from the All-NBA format to a "positionless" format in which members are selected without rega ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Reggie Miller
Reginald Wayne Miller (born August 24, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player who List of NBA players who have spent their entire career with one franchise, played his entire 18-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Indiana Pacers. Widely recognized as one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, he was known for his precision Three-point field goal, three-point shooting, especially in pressure situations and most notably Knicks–Pacers rivalry, against the New York Knicks, for which he earned the nickname "Knick Killer". A five-time NBA All-Star Game, All-Star selection, Miller was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012 and named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. Miller played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins men's basketball, UCLA Bruins, earning third-team NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans, All-American honors as a Junior (education year), junior in 1986. He was selected by Indiana ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Central Division (NBA)
The Central Division is one of the three divisions in the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The division consists of five teams, the Chicago Bulls, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Detroit Pistons, the Indiana Pacers, and the Milwaukee Bucks. All teams except the Cavaliers are former Midwest Division teams; thus, the Central Division now largely resembles the Midwest Division in the 1970s. An earlier five-team Central Division previously existed for the 1949–50 season as one of three divisions in the NBA, along with the Western and Eastern divisions. The current Central Division was created at the start of the 1970–71 season, when the league expanded from 14 to 17 teams with the addition of the Buffalo Braves, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Portland Trail Blazers. The league realigned itself into two conferences, the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference, with two divisions in each conference. The Central Division began with four in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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NBA Playoffs
The NBA playoffs is the annual Playoffs, postseason Tournament#Knockout tournaments, tournament of the National Basketball Association (NBA) held to determine the league champion. Since 1949, the four-round, best-of-seven tournament is held after the league's regular season and its preliminary postseason tournament, the NBA play-in tournament. Six teams from each of the two conferences automatically advance to the playoffs based on regular season winning percentage. As of 2021, those teams finishing seven through 10 from each conference compete in the play-in tournament to determine the final two playoff Seed (sports), seeds. The playoffs culminate with the NBA Finals, where both conference champions from the NBA conference finals play each other. Format The top six teams in both the Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference and Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference, ranked by winning percentage, directly advance to the playoffs. Teams ranked seventh through tenth comp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |