Paul George and the Indiana Pacers may have assured themselves a dubious place among the worst #1 seeds in NBA history. The Last time I saw a team this lifeless and apathetic playing at Conseco Fieldhouse…was only 6 weeks ago actually: the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Big Ten Tourney.
Pacers playoff tickets for game two went for only $7.20 in the secondary market, and the way Indiana played the first half tonight, that’s WAY OVERPRICED.
Paul George and company did make a furious comeback late, making the final score a bit more respectable, but they’re still down 3-2 in the series, just one game from elimination at the hands of an Atlanta Hawks team that finished the regular season 38-44. The Pacers lack of effort in this one angered the crowd.
A Bankers Life Fieldhouse heckler yelled at Indiana Pacers forward Paul George, and what makes his antagonizing so memorable is how clear it came through on the NBA TV broadcast. You can hear him as loud and lucid as the guys calling the game!
He must have been sitting right near the broadcast table, as you can hear him starting around the 20 second mark:
How awkward for the league owned and controlled network!
The clip is even more odd because the men calling the game didn’t address the heckler situation. It’s the type of thing that really requires a joke to ease the tension. However, we’re not broadcasters, so who knows what we would have done given the circumstances?
The Pacers played so poorly in the first half that NBA fans were better off switching over to the Miami Heat vs. Charlotte Bobcats game. That’s really saying something because the Heat series was actually over when it was scheduled. Paul George may have been the recipient of the fan criticism (understandable, given this play, and the long, lucrative extension the Pacers gave him), but the main scapegoat here is truly Roy Hibbert. He’s supposed to be considered a legitimate star, and he’s disturbingly absent this series.
Hibbert may not be good at basketball anymore, but at least he makes funny Star Wars and Shaq jokes.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks is a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, who’s been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)