His career jump-started having been surrounded by so many talented, young teammates, veteran Myles Turner, right, looks to be enjoying his best season for the Indiana Pacers.
Associated Press photos
Indiana’s best-known and best-supported professional sports franchises probably wouldn’t recognize one another at this point.
Call it the result of moving in opposite directions at warp speed.
The Indiana Pacers, who at 15-16 have taken this so-called throwaway season and are exceeding virtually every preseason expectation made, are young, cool and exciting.
Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard and rookie point machine Bennedict Mathurin, all born this century, haven’t quite achieved the status of being must-watch television.
The franchise, however, is trending that direction. Add a veteran locker room presence (or two) still capable of producing the occasional double-double, and the Pacers are there.
If the NBA playoffs began today, the Pacers would be the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference. While not about to be mistaken for Milwaukee, Boston or Philadelphia, there were times earlier this season Indiana occupied a higher postseason perch.
Which brings us to the Indianapolis Colts, who continue to gaze into their Magic 8 Ball to make decisions regarding coaches, quarterbacks, trades, left tackles, draft options and pretty much everything else with results that can only be categorized as laughable.
OK, Magic 8 Ball, should we go with another aging, past-his-prime quarterback to start the season?
8 Ball: “As I see it, yes.”
How about bringing in a beloved former player to be the interim coach as this season continues to circle the drain?
8 Ball: “Signs point to yes.”
Will the Indianapolis Colts be relevant again anytime soon?
8 Ball: “Concentrate and ask again.”
Well, there you have it.
The Pacers are hip.
The Colts are in need of a hip replacement.
Even when the Pacers lose, more often than not it’s performed with grit and a genuine sense of caring.
The Colts have positioned themselves on the island that separates irrelevance and just flat out being the biggest punchline in professional sports.
Pacers owner Herb Simon likely wouldn’t be recognized walking around downtown by even the franchise’s most ardent supporters. Simon makes hires, lets them do their jobs and remains, for the most part, invisible.
Football gives us Jim Irsay, whose tweets and moments in front of a camera/microphone are just flat out embarrassing.
And yet …
The Indiana Pacers rank 30th in the NBA in home attendance this season, averaging 14,461 fans inside 19,000-seat Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
As a reminder, the NBA is a 30-team league.
While Pacers fans are filling 76% of their home facility, the Colts through six home games are 27th of the NFL’s 32 franchises by putting a norm of 65,873 spectators inside Lucas Oil Stadium, making it 94% filled.
We’re a basketball state, but apparently a football city. Even with the Colts in complete disarray — 33-0 … hello! — support has continued to be strong, though it seems many of those spectators are showing up dressed as empty seats.
I’m guessing the Pacers, too, are guilty of this, albeit on a smaller scale.
Listen, in a perfect world, the Pacers and Colts would both be championship contenders playing in front of nothing less than frenzied, standing-room-only crowds.
But as the Colts continue to prove, the sports universe is often deeply flawed. Good thing the Pacers are there to demonstrate good things can be within reach.
Mike Beas is a sportswriter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].
