Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Pacers postmortum “Ahead of the Curve” with Kravitz, Eddie, Venturi, Hagan, and you

by Kent Sterling

Pacers president is facing the toughest offseason of his career as an NBA executive.

Last night was not the way Pacers fans wanted the supposed dream season to end. Beating the Miami Heat to force a Game Seven in Bankers Life Fieldhouse would have made for a sweet finale to a series against a hated rival, but the Pacers never competed at a level that threatened the Heat.

So now we focus on what went wrong and how it can be fixed. With most of the contributors under contract for next year, the primary questions are – does Larry Bird bring back Lance Stephenson, will Frank Vogel continue to serve as head coach moving forward, and will their be a trade to fill the hole Stephenson leaves – if he signs elsewhere.

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An esteemed panel of experts will weigh in on what the future might hold. Fans are split down the middle about whether a rebuild in necessary. Some want the team to come back intact, and others want Pacers president Larry Bird to blow up a significant portion of the team and start fresh.

Some want a traditional point guard to replace George Hill, and others believe Stephenson is a Ron Artest-esque cancer. Paul George is a budding superstar, but is he too nice. David West can scowl with the best, but did he play with the passion needed to win a championship.

When George was asked after the season ended last night whether he wanted Stephenson to return. He responded in full, “I mean, I don’t know. That’s for [Pacers president] Larry [Bird], [GM] Kevin [Pritchard], for them to decide. It would be great, we came into this league together. It would be great for us to continue our journey together. He’s played a huge year this whole season and in this postseason. He’s definitely put pressure on us to make decisions going forward.”

A lot of media sources are using the seemingly ambivalent (and maybe it was totally ambivalent) first part of the quote, but omitting the second.

Whatever happens, Stephenson brings a little discomfort to the roster, discomfort for opponents and discomfort for teammates. That can be a net positive, but it can also kill a team.

And for Vogel, what does a coach have to do to keep his job if Vogel can’t? Sure, he looks a little less than authoritative as he watches and evaluates from the bench, but the Pacers have been eliminated from the playoffs by the best team in the NBA the last three seasons – even if the Heat lost in the NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.

The Pacers don’t have a player who appears headed to the Basketball Hall of Fame – at least not yet – and the Heat probably have four right now. While Ray Allen is at the tail end of his ability to be effective, he is still able to be very productive in 18-20 minutes.

You want to coach the Pacers against Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Ray Allen and be fired for losing a best of seven series. Not many in the history of the game would be able to keep that gig.

We’ll talk about all of that at 11a today. Join us.

Indiana Pacers start fast, but fade even faster in 117-92 series ending loss to Miami Heat

by Kent Sterling

Lance Stephenson not only saw his season end tonight, but with it a few million dollars in future earnings may have been squandered.

Looking back on this death march of a Game Six that sent the Indiana Pacers to their long dirt nap, I can’t imagine that at one point the Indiana Pacers led 9-2.

For several brief moments there was hope, but it flew out the window and vanished with stunning speed. Trailing a few minutes later by a 13-9 score, I told the people I was with that the Heat would get to 30 points before the Pacers got to 20. My new glasses really have made me smarter.

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The Heat scored at will and the Pacers didn’t as the Heat closed the first quarter on a 22-4 run and the first half on an even more astounding 58-25 blitzkrieg.

It was a painful night for the Pacers fans, and I’m sure it was worse for the team, but it sure didn’t look like it. The demeanor of the team never changed appreciably throughout the game – which means either that the Pacers are tremendous professionals, or they knew the jig was up from jump street.

The strange malaise the Pacers have been able to overcome sporadically since the halcyon days four months ago when they were the toast of the NBA with a 33-7 record hung over the team throughout what I assumed was the biggest ass kicking of the season. I was wrong. Twice the Pacers were beaten by 26 – once against the Houston Rockets and again by the San Antonio Spurs.

That embarrassment is what a wacky banked three-pointer at the buzzer by Donald Sloane saved the Pacers from.

For the fourth time in these playoffs, the Pacers tied a franchise record for fewest offensive rebounds in a game (four), which must be a record in and of itself.

If I told you before the game that the Pacers would outscore the Heat 10-4 in fast break points, would go to the free throw line four more times than the Heat, would shoot 46.4% from the field, would turn the ball over only 11 times, and LeBron James and Dwyane Wade would only combine for 38 points, you might think the Pacers would be in control of the game. Not if I included the Heat shot an astonishing 57.9% from the field.

The easily understood fact that became quite clear tonight is that the Heat are the better team. Last year, that was in doubt, even after the Game Seven debacle in Miami that looked a whole lot like this mess. But tonight, it was hard to imagine this group of Pacers beating that group from the Heat – ever.

Fortunately, the Heat might splinter off as James, Wade, and Chris Bosh (Batman, Robin, and Alfred) all have the ability to opt out of their contracts for 2014-2015. With all three being paid $20M next year and a chance to four-peat if they can get past whoever emerges from the West, I can’t imagine why they would, so that seems less fortunate now than it did when I started that paragraph.

The Pacers have virtually all major contributors under contract for next season other than Lance Stephenson, so the talk during the offseason will focus on whether the Pacers will re-sign their mercurial young guard. His line tonight was an ordinary 11 points, four boards, and one assist, but his behavior was anything but.

Rubbing James’ face was odd, but slapping Norris Cole in the head was unforgivable. I’m a big proponent of bruising play. Making a guy pay a physical toll for entering the paint is part of the game, but smacking a defenseless player in the head while he reaches for a loose ball is beyond even my very loose boundaries.

It could easily have been called a flagrant two, which would have resulted in Stephenson’s ejection, and if I were an NBA GM, that moment combined with so many others would give me great pause as to whether I wanted to invest a bunch of cash and energy in him.

For a guy with millions on the line, Stephenson played like he was allergic to wealth.

Team president Larry Bird has several decisions to make. The first is whether he believes this team as currently constituted can mature enough to challenge the Heat. The second is about the potential return of Stephenson. The third is about Frank Vogel. Blaming coaches for the woes of the world has become standard fare among fans and front offices. We’ll see whether Bird believes Vogel has earned a fourth full season – a season during which he would become the longest tenured coach in the Pacers NBA history.

For a night when the fate of the Pacers season was definitively answered, there sure are a lot of questions left to ponder.

Indiana Pacers – Signing Lance Stephenson key to long term success

by Kent Sterling

Lance Stephenson is going to be a very wealthy 23-year old in a couple of months. I hope it’s for the Indiana Pacers.

For nearly the entire season, I’ve been undecided about whether Indiana Pacers guard Lance Stephenson should be back next year and beyond, but when the team rallied behind his defensive intensity in the third quarter of Game Five against Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, he showed exactly how important he is.

When drafted, I thought Pacers president Larry Bird made a terrible mistake. Stephenson had displayed an alarming dearth of impulse control as a youth near Coney Island, New York and with the University of Cincinnati – the type of guy who thought the world revolved around him. Basketball is a game that usually rewards players who embrace a team-first mentality, and that was clearly not a tool in Stephenson’s arsenal.

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Stephenson seemed to be a kid with great physical gifts and a determination to prove himself worthy of respect through personal accomplishment. Guys like that are usually better suited to playground games, but Bird saw something in Stephenson that he thought made him worth moving up in the 2010 NBA Draft from the 40th pick to draft him. No takers for an offer, the Pacer sweated it out until the 40th pick and grabbed the enigmatic Stephenson.

The process to educate the physically talented Stephenson began, and last season he finally blossomed. Is he perfect? No. Can he still revert to the selfishness that repelled teams that refused to draft him and teammates who made no secret of their disdain for him? Sure. Does he make headlines for silliness like blowing in LeBron James Wednesday night? Yep. Did he spend too much time thinking about and playing for the contract he will receive after this season. Absolutely.

When Roy Hibbert said, “(There are) some selfish dudes in here,” he was talking about Stephenson, who stole rebounds from teammates, expressed grief when teammates passed up open shots on passes that would have become assists for him, and stalled the offense by trying to break down his defender.

Would the Pacers be a happier team without the iconoclastic Stephenson? Probably.

Do the Pacers rise up and smite the Miami Heat in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Finals without Stephenson? No chance.

The name of the game in professional sports is winning, and Stephenson is a significant cog in the machine that has caused the Pacers to win back-to-back Central Division titles that preceded trips to the NBA’s Final Four.

Without Stephenson, the Pacers are a group of nice guys willing to try most of the time. For all his wonderful talent, Paul George is not a hard-edged competitor. David West has the best scowl in basketball, but he’s not always a driven competitor. Roy Hibbert? Projecting his level of toughness from game to game is pointless. Based upon on-court and locker room behavior, all three are men you would be proud for your daughter to date.

Stephenson brings a level of malevolence that is key to competing for championships. I’ve heard media people like ESPN’s Mike Wilbon describe Stephenson as “crazy” over the last 24 hours, and not in the complimentary sense.

My sense is that Stephenson isn’t crazy – he just doesn’t take himself so seriously, and indulges his id without great concern for consequences he finds meaningless. What is meaningful for Stephenson is enjoying basketball, and when he finds a personal motivation to excel, few are better at the game.

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After practice yesterday, he seemed genuinely baffled by the barrage of questions about blowing in James’ ear. To him, it was a meaningless moment of fun, and seeing it blow up into a worldwide leader sensation is much nuttier than the initial act itself.

Over the last four years, Stephenson has grown from an isolated and immature teammate who alienated everyone into a functional and key member of a team whose only weakness has been an inability to beat the two-time world champion.

Every great team needs an irritant to keep it from becoming comfortable and complacent. For the Pacers, that guy is Stephenson, and for all the weirdness and playful (sort of) antics, this post would be about how the Pacers will attack the offseason if not for his presence.

Stephenson is a guy worth another roll of the dice.

Indiana Pacers should come back intact next year – Lance Stephenson included

by Kent Sterling

Yes, Lance, your critics should quiet down. Without your effort last night, the Pacers season would be over.

With two more wins against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals this discussion becomes academic, but the Indiana Pacers have earned the opportunity to take a swing at winning the first NBA title in franchise history.

And that means signing Lance Stephenson to a longterm deal that will make him quite wealthy.

Lest anyone forget, the Pacers won 56 games, the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference, and is in toward the end of their second straight trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.

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The Pacers core is young – Paul George is 24, Lance Stephenson 23, Roy Hibbert 27, George Hill just turned 28. All but Stephenson are under contract, as are David West, Luis Scola, C.J. Watson, Chris Copeland, Ian Mahinmi, and Solomon Hill.

George Hill is the subject of trade speculation because he is a point guard in title only, and his best role might be as a sixth man who can be plugged in at either guard spot. At $8-million a year he’s a good fit for that role. Fans and media clamor for a traditional floor general who is more adept at creating offense through his own dexterity and athleticism. That would be nice, but a name and method of acquisition would be helpful.

Everyone is a smart guy when recommending someone be traded, but the question of who comes back and how they might fit usually stops the conversation. Many teams, including those for whom they currently play, would love to have Tony Parker, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, John Wall and Russell Westbrook. None are going anywhere – not for what the Pacers could provide in return.

Two possibilities are free agents Kyle Lowry and Eric Bledsoe. Lowry is looking for $10M-$12M, and I have coveted Bledsoe forever. He is lightning fast, and his qualifying offer is only $3.7M.

Still, I like what Hill does for the Pacers, and while he does not bring the same offensive toolbox to the court as some of the elite PGs, he is a tough, proud, and long defender who knows how to win.

Let’s dispense with the procedural paragraph about who will not be back among the rest:

Evan Turner is a free agent the Pacers would have to exercise a qualifying offer of over $8.7 million to keep, and that will not happen. Rasual Butler, Lavoy Allen, and Stephenson are free agents. Butler is a capable and inexpensive piece, so bringing him back is a reasonable option, but the departing Allen will become the answer to a difficult trivia question on July 1 – a question so difficult, I can’t imagine what it might be.

Now, let’s tackle the big offseason question. Whether to keep Lance Stephenson or to let him walk away is being discussed passionately among NBA fans everywhere. It is so close to a 50-50 proposition that I could argue both sides and make sense.

The question isn’t whether Stephenson is worth the $10M he will command; it’s whether he is a good enough fit for the Pacers to warrant that kind of investment. Until last night, I was unable to get off the fence. Stephenson is dynamic as hell, creative, competitive, and confounding.

Last night, just past the halfway mark of the third quarter, Stephenson fouled and then took a menacing step toward Dwyane Wade. Immediately after that, and for the rest of the quarter, Stephenson picked Wade up full court. When asked after today’s practice why he did it, Stephenson said, “They were too comfortable…if you look at the numbers, they were playing much harder than us and much better than us. We needed to slow them down.”

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Yes, yes, and yes. Was Stephenson right in blowing in LeBron James’ ear? I don’t care one way or the other. It was harmless, albeit a little odd. The cogent point with Stephenson is that with 5:48 left in the third, Stephenson said “ENOUGH!” and lifted the team up emotionally.

Is it also true that until that point in the third that Stephenson was part of the malaise rather than part of the solution? Sure, but that he was the change agent that corrected the mess is a mitigating factor.

Fifty-six wins is a solid standard, and there are 13 other teams in the East who would love to be on their way to Miami tonight. Whatever Bird does to help make the Pacers better, he needs to realize the bar is set pretty damn high already.

Indiana Pacers – Lance Stephenson did a lot more than blow in LeBron James ear

by Kent Sterling

When Lance Stephenson looks down and right, it's time to recalibrate strategy.

When Lance Stephenson looks down and right as he did after fouling Dwyane Wade, it’s time to recalibrate strategy.

With the Indiana Pacers playing passive basketball on both ends of the floor in last night’s win-or-die Game Five, the Miami Heat enjoyed a 50-43 with 5:48 remaining in the third quarter. Then, Lance Stephenson awakened.

Not sure the cause, but the first sign of life was a Stephenson foul on Dwyane Wade on Miami’s offensive end. Stephenson poked the ball from Wade’s grasp, and got a little arm along with the ball – or so the referee believed. Stephenson took exception, and took a step toward Wade.

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You know that little move attack dogs make as they assert dominance – no eye contact, but clear malevolence and a reasonable expectation that any movement will provoke a vicious response? That was Stephenson’s vibe, and from that point forward in the third quarter, Stephenson brought a level of intensity on both ends that lifted the rest of his teammates.

Amazingly, it was just after the Stephenson foul that ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy said, “They (Pacers) like almost need a skirmish to get and intensity and energy from all five.” That’s exactly what happened.

For the final 5:48 of the quarter, the Pacers dominated the Heat 21-7 to take a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter they never relinquished.

It wasn’t the Lance Stephenson Show either. Paul George scored eight points, David West five, Roy Hibbert and Stephenson four each, and the defense came alive at all five spots.

Suddenly, Stephenson picked up Wade full court, and the rest of the Pacers worked to tap offensive rebounds back, blocked out consistently, and remembered the level of energy and fundamental consistency needed to compete at a championship level.

During that 5:48, the Pacers notched five offensive rebounds – one more than during three entire games during this postseason when they tied franchise records with only four. The Heat corralled one team defensive board after a loose ball foul on David West.

Because the Pacers became the aggressor, the Heat became tentative and uncomfortable, and the momentum in the game shifted completely from the Heat to the Pacers.

It helped that the best player in the world, (I think LeBron James has asked that all references to him begin that way, kind of like Michael Jackson was “the King of Pop,” and Joe Dimaggio was “the greatest living ballplayer”). was on the bench during this entire stretch.

Stephenson also spent a little time in the Heat huddle at this point during the game with 1:43 left in the third. As the officials converged to make sure Ray Allen was the Heat player who belonged at the line, Heat coach Eric Spoelstra tried to chat with Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole. Stephenson stuck his head in the middle of the discussion to Spoelstra’s displeasure.

Antics like that – as well as the blowing in James’ ear – tend to grab the media’s attention because they are funny and odd in the middle of a dramatic closeout game, but the real difference Stephenson made in this game came in the final 5:48 of the third.

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Games can turn on a single moment. Players can come alive in the blink of an eye. This series continues to a Game Six tomorrow night in Miami because Stephenson found a reason to dig deep and assert his estemable will and competitive fire, and the rest of the Pacers were caught in his wake of energy.

Stephenson was vilified in the media for “poking the bear” as he discussed the trash talk in which he and James engaged earlier in the series. Well, someone on the Heat should take responsibility for poking Stephenson because if he hadn’t come to life, this series would be over.

Indiana Pacers’ pulse stronger with Game Five 93-90 win to force return to Miami

by Kent Sterling

Lance Stephenson strips Dwyane Wade as the Pacers turn up the defensive pressure in its 93-90 win.

Lance Stephenson strips Dwyane Wade as the Pacers turn up the defensive pressure in 93-90 win.

When LeBron James is inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, all recorded traces of the Pacers Game Five win tonight over his Heat will be destroyed as a favor to his legacy.

Seven points, two rebounds, four assists, and five fouls do not comprise the line the Heat needed from the best basketball in the world to close out this series. He is not likely to repeat it. But Rashard Lewis isn’t likely to knock down six three-pointers in Game Six either.

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So this wacky and occasionally wonderful Pacers season rolls toward yet another completely unpredictable chapter, and the Pacers are 48 minutes away from being exactly where they wanted to be when this madness started five games ago – Game Seven at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

Paul George scored a remarkable 31 points in the second half, but it was the frenetic energy of Lance Stephenson that picked the Pacers mojo up off the floor and dusted it off. His defensive pestering and poking changed the tempo of the game, and the Heat buckled without James on the floor for exactly half the game’s 48 minutes.

Still, the Heat had a chance to tie or take the lead down 92-90 with under 10-seconds left as James got a shoulder into George and drove to the what appeared to be a game tying layup, or a foul that might put him on the line for game tying free throws. But as happens too often for a great player, James passed to Chris Bosh in the corner for a three-pointer to win it. Bosh missed, and the game was over shortly thereafter.

The Pacers suffered through and ultimately survived one of its worst quarters of the season as they were outscored 26-11 in the second despite James and Wade spending a lot of time on the bench and never being on the court at the same time. Ray Allen turned back the clock and scored 10 points to lead the Heat in what looked to be a deciding period while defending better than a 38-year old has a right to ask his body to.

At the end of the half, the Heat led by 11 points and appeared to be on their way to a stress-free ticket punch to the NBA Finals, but the Pacers had some fight left and refused to accept their demise without one more surge.

The third quarter was as good for the Pacers as the second was for the Heat, as they outscored the Heat 31-16.

The yo-yo disposition of this wacky Pacers game was in full flower tonight, showing both the laconic malaise that has baffled players, coaches, media, fans, and anyone else who has dared expect any level of play from this team. Those who had the temerity to predict a World Championship after the 33-7 start to the season or doom after any of a couple of dozen occasions during the last two months of the regular season or entire offseason have been stunned by the opposite.

High quality energetic play flashes periodically only to be replaced by slow motion mopery – and vice versa – but because there was slightly more great than terrible tonight, the Pacers will board a plane to Miami tomorrow for its one shot to force a home Game Seven.

James will be well-rested and likely much improved, while Lewis can’t be close to what he was tonight. George will be asked to prove tonight’s 37 point and six steal performance wasn’t a fluke. Roy Hibbert will need to come up with another quiet double-double (10 and 12) for the Pacers to defy the odds and bring the series back home for a second winner-goes-to-the-finals 48 minute grudge match in two years.

Again and again, the Pacers find a way to extend their season, and tonight might have been the most stunning. A Game Six upset would trump tonight’s win 10 fold.

Can’t wait to see what the Pacers have in store for Friday night.

Indiana Pacers – Lance Stephenson and Paul George learning what it takes to win

by Kent Sterling

Paul George and Lance Stephenson could be the foundation of the first NBA champions in Indiana Pacers history.

There is a reason that Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas didn’t win an NBA Championship until each turned 28.

It’s the same reason LeBron James didn’t win one until he was 27, and Wilt Chamberlain won his first at 31.

Winning occurs as athletic mastery and behavioral maturity intersect, and regardless of how much we like Paul George (24) and Lance Stephenson (23), they have done little to prove they are psychologically ready to challenge James and the Miami Heat.

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Between Stephenson’s strange thoughts on how James showed weakness through his trash talk and Paul George’s erroneous assertions about the effect officiating had in Game Four, neither has shown the mettle required to measure up to the two-time defending champions.

Pacers center Roy Hibbert (27) hasn’t been a showcase of maturity himself with four scoreless games in the 2014 postseason, including Game Four in Miami.

An NBA season is like a centrifuge that spins until elements that don’t cling to each other in the middle are spun toward the edges, and the farther out they go, the more difficult it is to return to the middle. In late January, a few of the pieces let loose of one another, and have never returned.

Whether that was caused by internal strife, salary disparity, personal demons, silly choices, moves by the front office, some other nefarious change agent, or an unholy combination can only be answered by the Pacers themselves. All would likely come up with unique answers.

The question moving into the offseason, whenever that day comes, is whether the Pacers core is capable of coming back together to hold each other close enough to resist the pull to the edges where teams go to collapse. Have the Pacers learned enough to be successful moving forward, or do they need to be reconstituted in a way that will give the Pacers a better chance to beat the Heat in 2015 should the Big Two + Chris Bosh remain together?

Selfies, strippers, trash talk, bitching and moaning about referees, carping about the game plan, airing dirty laundry about selfishness in the media, and overreacting to personnel moves are team killers, and if the Pacers haven’t learned that lesson this season, they never will.

It’s not essential for teammates to love one another, but uniform belief in a common goal is an absolute must, and throughout the second half of the season and postseason, the Pacers looked like anything but a group with a common purpose.

That comes from youth and a wildly uneven salary structure. Lance Stephenson, according to hoops hype.com is being paid $981,349 for the 2013-2014 season. Compared to Hibbert’s $14,283,844, David West’s $12,000,000, and Paul George’s $8,000,000, Stephenson is a pauper. Hell, Lavoy Allen has played only 112 minutes since being traded to the Pacers, and he’s pulling down nearly four times more cash than Lance.

Stephenson will be rich beyond his dreams beginning next year, but the millions of dollars difference between compensation and production is certainly noticed by Stephenson. And he knows damn well he will never be able to lay claim to those wages lost.

There are exceptions to the age needed to succeed rule. Larry Bird won his first ring as the Celtics best player at 24, and Magic Johnson won his first as a 20-year old rookie. Some would argue that Magic was not the best player on the Lakers while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was in his prime, but Bird was the Celtics best from the moment he put on that iconic jersey. The Pacers didn’t draft George and Stephenson in 2010 because of their ability to win young, so expectations have been fulfilled.

What Bird needs to see is steady improvement. Fame and wealth make screwy choices difficult to avoid, as the Pacers have shown since late January.

The future is bright for both George and Stephenson if they are able to take responsibility for the errors of this season and apply that information toward 2014-2015. Being four years behind Jordan with two trips to the Eastern Conference Finals is not a bad spot to be in. The first four years of their careers have shown potential and revealed flaws.

Sand off the rough spots and NBA titles could be in their future. If the mistakes continue to recur without correction, the Pacers as currently built are as good as they will get.

Of course Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay received preferential treatment, but is that wrong?

by Kent Sterling

Jim Irsay’s life has been inexorably altered because of his addiction. Jail wouldn’t have served any purpose, regardless of his wealth and position.

Indianapolis Colts owner and local billionaire Jim Irsay was arrested on March 16th for a bunch of stuff, including some serious drug related issues that could have brought felony charges.

After more than two months on the Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend, the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office decided to chafe Irsay with two misdemeanors that will almost certainly result in no jail time.

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As a result, people wonder whether the prosecutor treated Irsay just as he would a non-billionaire – let’s say a hundredaire living in a Lawrence apartment who works at a Jiffy Lube. The answer is yes.

There is no doubt that a billionaire who can hire Jim Voyles as his attorney has a leg up over a guy whose legal help comes in the form of a public defender. That’s life. Don’t like it? Too bad. Some people are born into wealth and others aren’t. Some people are lucky enough to earn a bunch of money, and some aren’t.

Money buys so many advantages, counting the areas where there is equivalence among the classes is much quicker. That’s why people seek wealth. If all of us got to hire Voyles, he would be very busy, and if everyone belonged to Crooked Stick Golf Club, no one would be able to get a tee-time.

Conversely, every misstep by Irsay is in the paper. When he screws up, it leads the six o’clock news. When Biff from Jiffy Lube goes to Carb Day, drinks a fifth of Jack, and gets popped for public intoxication, no one cares and he goes back to work Monday morning with no one knowing that he spent a day in Marion County lockup.

We tend to only see the advantages of fame and wealth and none of the penalties.

Was the timing of the release suspect? Sure. Has the silence of the prosecutor’s office been odd? I don’t know the typical procedures of a suburban prosecutor’s office, but usually public employees (especially those elected to their office) respond to requests from the media for information.

But does that mean that the determination of the prosecutor was wrongheaded?

Irsay is a drug addict, and jail time does nothing to alter the path of addiction. If anything, drugs are more plentiful and easier to acquire behind bars. What would be gained by sending Irsay to Plainfield for six months or a year? Nothing. He would have been yet another perpetrator of a victimless crime costing taxpayers a lot of money through pointless incarceration.

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Irsay belonged in rehab, and that’s where he went. He and his wife have been separated for years, and the relationships with his three daughters are strained, according to those close to the family. His punishment for addiction extends far beyond wearing orange in the exercise yard for a few months.

The NFL hasn’t meted out its penalty yet, and that might be the harshest of all. Irsay could be suspended for an extended period – some say as long as a year – from contact with the team. For a guy who absolutely loves being the owner of the Colts, that would be grotesquely unpleasant.

Rehab was where Irsay’s life could be reclaimed, and that’s where he went.

It might not be fair, but it is justice.

Indiana Pacers – Enjoy tonight’s Game Five, regardless of the outcome

by Kent Sterling

The Pacers starting five might return intact next year, but you never know.

Whether the Indiana Pacers win or lose tonight’s Game Five, fans at Bankers Life Fieldhouse should take the time to do two things – enjoy watching this group play together, and thank them for the total body of work they cobbled together during a weird, weird year.

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The Pacers face long odds to move on to the NBA Finals, needing to beat the two-time defending champions three straight times to win the Eastern Conference Finals. In the 222 circumstances in NBA history when a team has taken a 3-1 series lead, that team has gone on to win the series 214 times.

In those instances when the team with the 3-1 lead was a two-time NBA champ, if it has ever happened, I will bet that team won the series every single time.

So let’s prepare for the logical conclusion to this series, hope for a miracle, and adjust behavior accordingly.

Win or lose tonight, Game Five is likely the final home game of this roller coaster season for the Pacers, and despite the incredible expectations the Pacers built through the first half of the season, they are more than worthy of a significant display of appreciation.

Focusing on the recent struggles that have plagued the Pacers would be short-sighted and a Philadelphia-ish response to adversity. In NBA seasons, 29 teams go home losers. One becomes the champion. To show displeasure with a team that fought like the Pacers did would represent a level of discomforting level of petulance for a city known for being filled with nice people.

Next year’s roster is likely going to look much different than this one. Lance Stephenson will be a free agent, and if the Pacers are willing to commit the resources to sign him, there are bench players who will need to be dealt in order to free up money for Lance and the rest of the roster.

There is a possibility that Pacers brain trust Larry Bird, Kevin Pritchard, and Donnie Walsh will look at the bizarre second half of the season and sad end against the Heat (if that becomes the outcome), and realize that beating LeBron and company with this group is impossible. No one other than Paul George would be safe – including coach Frank Vogel.

My belief is that Vogel represents the type of leader that is most effective. His consistency reflects trust, and his players turning the two opening series around showed reciprocity.

The unhappy truth is that it’s likely no one in the Eastern Conference will compete successfully with the Heat as long as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are healthy and productive.

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All the roster shuffling Bird might do in the offseason will pale in comparison to the importance to the Pacers of 24-year old Paul George’s maturity as a man and basketball player. George needs to build himself into a champion in mind and body if the Pacers are ever going to climb Mt. LeBron.

In the meantime, the level of work this team has done since the end of Game Seven in the 2013 Eastern Conference should be acknowledged. It’s not a matter of applauding a failure to beat the Heat, but a tip of the hat for effort that sadly did not yield the hoped for result.

The series isn’t over, but the chances of the Heat dropping tonight’s game in Indy and Friday’s in Miami are slim given the level at which both the Heat and Pacers have competed. If the Pacers couldn’t find the grit to attack the Heat defense effectively in games three and four, how can they be expected to do it in games five and six?

Fans should hope for the best tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. They should lose their minds and voices in trying to lift the Pacers up, but when the game ends – win or lose – shower some love upon these guys. This is almost certainly the last time they’ll play together as a team in their home town.

Good guys playing hard come up short. That’s life. And if the Pacers come up short in either games five or six, that makes them no less worthy of some love tonight.

Pat Mullin’s EG10 17U squad wins Adidas Gauntlet regular season crown

by Kent Sterling

Pat Mullin has been an exceptionally successful summer basketball coach for two decades, and not just because his teams win – a lot.

Against some of the highest ranked boy’s basketball players in the country, Indiana’s own EG10 Central Stars 17 & under team finished the unique regular season of the Adidas Gauntlet with a 14-2 record.

This is nothing new for coach Pat Mullin who has won with lesser known talent in the past. Matt Howard, Zach Randolph, JaJuan Johnson, Jeremy Hollowell, Pernell Smith, Ronnie Johnson, and Nick Osborne are among the players who have come to Mullin as unknowns and left for college ready to contribute.

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The EG10 Central Stars finished the Adidas Gauntlet one game in from of the Atlanta Celtics, Team Loaded NC, and Game Elite. Among those players nationally ranked are Braxton Blackwell (#17 – 2016), Kobi Simmons (#28 – 2016), Chase Jeter (#35 – 2015), T.J. Leaf (#25- 2016), Brandon Ingram (#15 – 2015), Carlton Bragg (#11 – 2015), and Thon Maker (#1 – 2016).

How do C.J. Hardaway, Tahjai Teague, Elliot Welmer, Michael Benkert, Joel Okarfur, Charles King Jr., Brennan Gillis, Dwayne Gibson, Anthony Jones, Ryan Welage, Nick Rogers, and Anthony Jones beat the nation’s best. Well, they are good, solid, smart, fundamentally sound basketball players who embrace a team-first concept in the same way all other teams coached by Mullin do.

During the Indianapolis stop on the Adidas Gauntlet, they were the one team I saw that could play solid man-to-man defense, and force teams to execute an offense that required screens and basic basketball strategies. That’s also the reason Pat sends a disproportionate number of his players to play college basketball.

The offense is simple – deliver the ball on target and on-time, and never pass up an open shot. Funny how simplicity in basketball works among people who play well together.

The regular season will provide seeding for the Super 64 in Las Vegas from July 23-27. For those unwilling to travel to Vegas to watch summer basketball played by great kids – and count me among them – Mullin’s team will play at North Central High School on July 9-13.

You will see a lot of what isn’t typical in summer ball – generosity, focus, and precision. It’s typical Indiana basketball played by fundamentally strong kids, most if not all of whom will play in college.

They are following a rick tradition of players who were recruited for the same reasons and coached to play in the same way. Some wind up in the NBA, some coach, and others move on from the game they played so successfully, but all remember very fondly the success, fun, and friends that playing for Mullin brings.