Chuck Person

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The phone rang at 1:32 a.m. Saturday morning. Chuck Person was returning a call. From Tuesday.

Such is life for a college basketball coach immersed in preparations for a conference game the next day. Later the same day, actually. Person is the associate head coach at Auburn, which has a home game against Mississippi on Saturday, which was reason enough for him to be in his office in the wee hours, particularly when the team is coming off two losses.

Person won't be able to attend the Pacers' game against New York on Saturday, when the players from the 1980s will be honored and he will be the subject of a bobblehead given to fans. He would if he could, though, and he should if he could, because he stands as the franchise's most significant player of that decade. Reggie Miller and Rik Smits, both drafted in the 1980s, had longer and more stable careers with the franchise, but Person came before them and did more to begin the process of changing the course of a drifting battleship.

"The Pacers mean everything to me," he said. "Donnie Walsh, the Simon family … they trusted me to come in and help get things turned around.

"Hopefully they appreciated what I tried to do. We had some great times. And, some times when it was not so good. But we did jump-start that franchise."

You would have had to be there to understand the state of the franchise in 1986. The Pacers had won 26 games the previous season, 22 before that, 26 before that and 20 before that. That's 94 victories in four seasons if you're counting at home, as most fans were then because actually attending games at Market Square Arena was an exercise likely to bring first-hand frustration.

The 1985-86 season ended with 11 losses in the final 12 games, and the team's best player, Clark Kellogg, out with a knee injury that would soon end his career. But better days were coming.

Walsh was elevated from assistant coach to general manager after that season. His first personnel move was to draft Person, a 6-8 forward from Auburn, with the fourth pick in the draft. He put out word within the league that he was going to "go big" with his selection – maybe William Bedford, or Roy Tarpley. But that was a ruse to prevent another team from trading up to move ahead of him in the order and take Person.

Person was among those fooled. Sitting at the draft in New York, wearing the white suit he had worn just a few days earlier when he was married in Muscle Shoals, Ala., he expected to go to the Knicks with the fifth overall pick.

"When I went through the interview with (Knicks general manager) Scotty Stirling, he said if I'm there at five he would take me," Person said. "I didn't have any idea the Pacers would take me at four. When it came time for the Pacers to pick in New York, I saw the cameras coming my way and I said, 'Whoa, it looks like I'm going to the Pacers.'

"I was kind of hoping the Knicks would take me, but I was grateful Donnie Walsh and the Pacers chose me to help turn their franchise around."

Fans booed the selection back in Indianapolis, just as they booed Miller and other picks Walsh made to build the franchise. Red Auerbach, providing commentary for the national television coverage of the draft, questioned the pick as well. And if Person wasn't viewed favorably as a draft pick, the Pacers weren't viewed favorably as a destination.

Before the draft, Len Bias – who went second to the Celtics -- had been asked by a USA Today reporter where he wanted to go in the draft. "Anywhere but Indiana," he said.
Person, though, was undeterred.

"Unlike Len Bias, I'm happy to be here in Indiana," he said at his introductory press conference. "I'm glad Indiana drafted me. I'm excited to be a Pacer."

Those words meant something to a beleaguered fan base, and provided the first hint of the desperately-needed bravado that Person would inject into the franchise. He was nicknamed The Rifleman, appropriate on many levels. His mother had given him the middle name of Connor, after Chuck Connors, who played the lead role in the television series, The Rifleman. And he fired a lot of shots, many from long distance.

Person came off the bench the first four games of his rookie season as Kellogg attempted a comeback from his knee injury, but when Kellogg was forced into retirement, Person stepped in without blinking.

He finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals in his first start, a 130-97 victory over San Antonio. He scored in double figures in all but four games the rest of the season, and finished with averages of 18.8 points and 8.3 rebounds. He was one of the league's best 3-point threats at the time, hitting 36 percent of his attempts. He hit just 49 overall, but that seemed like a bombardment at the time. In the previous four seasons, no Pacers player had hit more than 17.

He was a legitimate post-up threat, too, and the franchise's first bona-fide clutch shooter since Roger Brown in the ABA. Person, for example, hit a game-winning 3-pointer with nine seconds left for an overtime win at Golden State on Feb. 10, 1987. He came back the following night to score 42 points in a 16-point victory at Phoenix. He hit 18-of-23 field goal attempts in that game, with just one of the 18 makes coming from beyond 12 feet, and converted all six 3-pointers.

The Pacers won 41 games that season, made the playoffs for just the second time in their 11-season NBA history, and won a playoff game for the first time. They lost their first-round matchup with Atlanta 3-1, but the season qualified as a breakthrough.
For all that he was voted the NBA's Rookie of the Year. He's still the only Pacer to receive that honor, and was the first player in franchise history to win a major individual award. He was an obvious choice, receiving 68 of the 78 votes, with Cleveland's Ron Harper getting the other 10.

"He sets the tempo for the future in the way we would like to play and that's with a certain amount of mental toughness and playing every game day-in and day-out," Walsh said at the press conference announcing the honor.

Person also stands as a cautionary tale, however. He admits today the acclaim from the award went to his head somewhat, weakening his work ethic in the off-season. He reported to training camp out of shape and struggled early the following season, when rookie Reggie Miller joined the team. Person's scoring averaged dropped to 17 points and the rest of his game declined a bit as well. The Pacers won just 38 games and missed the 1988 playoffs by one game, losing the final regular season at home by two points to the Knicks.

"I don't think I came back prepared to be one of the top players in the league," he said. "I thought I had arrived and probably had one of the worst seasons I ever had in a Pacers uniform. I regret that my conditioning wasn't where it needed to be, and it showed on the court.

"I had that sophomore experience when you think you're better than you really are. I didn't perform as a team player."

Person's peak moment with the Pacers came in his fifth season. Miller had blossomed into a star, Detlef Schrempf had become the NBA's best sixth man, and Rik Smits was a threat at center, although underutilized and underappreciated by coach Bob Hill.

The Pacers went 41-41 that season, but took Boston to a fifth game in the first round of the playoffs. Person scored 39 points in a Game 2 upset in Boston, hitting 16-of-24 shots, including 7-of-10 3-pointers, to ignite dreams of an upset. The Pacers dropped Game 3 back in Indianapolis as Person scored just six points – "I made the mistake of trying to let the game come to me," he recalls – but he was back to his old self in Game 4.

The day before the game, a Friday morning, he stuck his head in Hill's office and said, "Good morning, Coach. It's a good day in Zimbabwe."

That let Hill know Person was ready. And he was. He scored 30 points, including 12 in a row while hitting five straight shots in the second half and engaging Celtics legend Larry Bird in trash talking, to lead a 116-113 victory.

1980s CENTRAL: Learn More About the Decade at Pacers.com/1980s »

"I wasn't going to go down without a fight," he said afterward. I was going to draw first, just like the Rifleman."

If there was a singular moment when the Pacers' fan base finally galvanized around one of the franchise's NBA teams, this was it. The fans stood continuously throughout most of the game, and all of the last five minutes, creating a din never before heard in the building. Person still remembers being in a timeout huddle and not being able to hear the buzzer sound to return to the court.

"I never experienced a crowd like that before in my life," he said after that game. "Tonight, when we got down they stayed right behind us. Keep going, keep going. That was fueling my fire. I said I'm not going to let this team down, or the franchise, or the fans. I was going to do whatever I had to do to help this team win … even if it meant playing a little defense."

The Pacers lost Game 5 back in Boston, 124-121. Person scored 32 points, but it's remembered for being one of the final highlights for Bird, who retired a year later. Bird hit his head on the court after chasing a loose ball and had to leave the game, but made a dramatic return to lead the Celtics' victory and finish with 32 points.

"That's one of those moments in time you wish you had back," Person says. "What if we won Game 5? Where would the franchise be now? If we win that series we could go on to beat Cleveland in the next round, then we're in the Eastern Conference finals. I do think back on that. It's the only what-if in my life.

"We were young and didn't know what we were doing. We were brash and explosive offensively.

We just couldn't guard anybody and couldn't rebound. And that was our shortcoming."
Indeed. Person's joke after Game 4 about "even if it meant playing a little defense" was telling. The Pacers averaged 111.7 points in that 1990-91 season, but gave up 112.1. It wasn't a long-term winning formula.

They finished 40-42 in the 1991-92 season and were swept in the first round of the playoffs by Boston. With his team stuck in neutral, Walsh dealt Person to Minnesota for Sam Mitchell and Pooh Richardson after the season. That moved Schrempf into the starting small forward position Person had occupied, and allowed Miller to become the focal point of the offense – of the team, really. With Dale Davis and Smits emerging, the pieces were in place for a series of runs to the Eastern Conference finals after Larry Brown was brought in as coach and Schrempf was traded to Seattle for Derrick McKey to improve the defense.

"Did I want to leave Indiana? Of course not," Person says. "But Detlef had become a really good player and wanted to start and was starting to play small forward and Dale Davis was coming into his own and was the power forward of the future and the organization felt it had to make a change.

"I don't say it was a bad decision. We had other guys who could do things I could do. They made a choice. It didn't work out as well as they thought it would. But something had to be done. I never felt any less for Donnie. In fact I loved him even more because he told me he was thinking about doing it and asked what I thought of it. I said, if it's good for the Pacers he should do it. I wouldn't trade that man for anybody. He was always honest with me. He gave me the keys to the franchise for six years. Sometimes I didn't drive very straight, but I did the best I could."

Person finished his career in Minnesota, San Antonio, Charlotte and Seattle, playing 13 seasons in all not counting the one he sat out with an injury. He's since coached in Cleveland, with the Pacers – as Rick Carlisle's defensive coordinator, believe it or not – and with Sacramento and the Lakers. He very nearly became Chicago's head coach, finishing a close second to Vinny Del Negro, and interviewed for the head coaching jobs with Sacramento, Golden State and the Lakers.

He's 52 now, and the dream is to become a college head coach.
"At the end of the day my goal is to be a head coach," he said. "I think the NBA has passed me by. I've had the opportunity to go back (as an assistant) but I like being in college."

He's interviewed for the lead position at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and is patiently trying to prove his worth and sincerity by grinding out the assistant chores at his alma mater, even in the wee hours the morning of a game.

"We all have to have that first job to get that experience," he said. "I'm hoping one day it will happen for me. If it doesn't I'll be good, but I'd like to have a chance to do it.

"College coaching entails a lot of things -- academics, many, many speaking engagements; coaching is about 20 percent of it. Those 33 games go by very quickly You're always on the phone. You're always calling recruits. We have 50 recruits on board, and there's about six people to talk to for each one. That's a lot of people. But I love it. It's a matter of time before someone sees I put in my time."

Person isn't looking back. But he does keep in touch with a few people from his time with the Pacers, including Walsh. And he does have one request.

"Tell Larry Bird I want one more game of H-O-R-S-E," he said.

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Chuck Person's Star Burned Bright as the Pacers' Go-To Player

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After thousands of votes from Pacers fans around the world, the final results are in. For the 1980s starting lineup, fans used PacersVote.com to select Chuck Person, Reggie Miller, Detlef Schrempf, Wayman Tisdale, and Clark Kellogg.

Person, who is being honored with his very own bobblehead on Saturday night, is the only Pacers player to ever win the Rookie of the Year award. During his rookie season in 1986-87, Person helped the Pacers grab their first-ever win in the NBA postseason.

Miller, whose Pacers career stretches from 1987-88 to 2004-05, is the franchise's all-time leading scorer. During the 1989-90 season, Miller averaged a career-best 24.6 points per game while sinking 40 percent of his 3-point shots.

Tisdale was the Pacers' first-round draft choice in 1985, picked with the second overall pick. In his four seasons with the team, Tisdale averaged 15.2 points and 7.2 rebounds. After basketball, Tisdale released a number of jazz albums. He passed away after a long battle with cancer in May of 2009.

Detlef Schrempf was traded to the Pacers from the Dallas Mavericks in 1989, quickly becoming a do-everything player for Indiana. In his five seasons with the team, Schrempf averaged 17 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game. Over the course of four seasons, Schrempf suited up for 15 Pacers playoff games.

Kellogg, while not winning Rookie of the Year, put up season that still stands as the high-water mark for Pacers rookies. In 1982-83, after being drafted out of Ohio State, Kellogg finished the year averaging 20.1 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. Unfortunately, chronic knee injuries shortened Kellogg's career. The power forward finished his career in 1986-87 having played in 260 NBA games.

Voting for the starting five of the 1990s is now open. Make sure to make your voice heard on PacersVote.com »

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Fans Select Their 1980s Starting Five

Wheat Hotchkiss

The Indiana Pacers were kings of the ABA, winning three championships with Slick Leonard manning the sidelines and stars like Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, and George McGinnis leading the way on the court.

But after the ABA-NBA merger, the Pacers struggled to find any success in their first decade in a new league. Over their first 10 seasons in the NBA, the Pacers managed just one playoff appearance (in 1981, when they were quickly swept out of the postseason by Philadelphia).

But in the mid-1980s, the franchise began a dramatic transformation from cellar dweller to contender. That all started when assistant coach Donnie Walsh was promoted to general manager. Walsh's rebuild began in the 1986 NBA Draft, where he had his eyes on a young sharpshooter out of Auburn named Chuck Person.

In 1980, the Nuggets had the fifth pick in the draft. They really wanted to take Kevin McHale, a forward out of Minnesota, but they made the mistake of letting other teams know of their intentions.

The night before the draft, Boston traded the first and 13th picks in the draft to Golden State for center Robert Parish and the third overall selection. The Warriors took Purdue star Joe Barry Carroll with the number one pick, while the Celtics dropped down and took McHale with the third selection, cementing the core of what would be one of the NBA's all-time great dynasties (having missed out on McHale, the Nuggets drafted Jacksonville forward James Ray, who lasted just three seasons in the NBA).

So when the Pacers had the fourth overall pick in 1986, Walsh knew better than to let other teams know which way he was leaning. When he got calls asking what he planned to do, Walsh told teams he would likely take a big man.

"I didn't just out-and-out lie to them, (but) I came close to it," Walsh said.

On draft night, after Brad Daugherty, Len Bias, and Chris Washburn came off the board, Walsh gladly nabbed Person with the fourth pick.

Person joined a Pacers team that had averaged just 23.5 wins over their last four seasons. Clark Kellogg, the Pacers' best player over that stretch, was forced to retire at age 25, just four games into Person's rookie season, due to chronic knee problems.

That allowed new head coach Jack Ramsay to move the rookie into the starting lineup and Person flourished, putting together the greatest rookie season in franchise history. He led the team in scoring (18.8 points per game), rebounding (8.3 boards per contest), and 3-point percentage (.355), living up to his nickname of "The Rifleman."

Person was named the NBA's Rookie of the Year (to date, he's the only Pacers player to ever take home that honor) and led Indiana to a 41-41 record, a 15-win improvement over the previous season.

In the playoffs, the Pacers matched up with Dominique Wilkins and the Atlanta Hawks. After dropping the first two contests on the road, the best-of-five series shifted back to Market Square Arena, where the rookie put together a pair of memorable performances.

In Game 3, Person amassed 23 points, 17 rebounds, and seven assists to lead the Pacers to their first-ever NBA playoff victory.

Two days later, Person scored 40 points, going 14-for-27 from the field and 12-for-15 from the free throw line while also tallying seven boards and six assists. The Hawks came away with a four-point win to eliminate Indiana, but Person's prolific output would stand as a franchise record for 14 years until Reggie Miller surpassed him with 41 points in a 2000 playoff game against Milwaukee.

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Just how good was Person as a rookie? In NBA history, only two players have ever averaged at least 18 points and eight rebounds per game while also shooting 35 percent or better from 3-point range. Person is one of them. The other is Larry Bird.

Walsh, for one, was not surprised at Person's instant success.

"I thought he could (win Rookie of the Year)," Walsh told Montieth. "I knew he could score. I absolutely knew it. And I knew that Chuck was very knowledgeable about the game for a guy coming out college. He really knew how to post up, he knew the nuances of the league. And those things he didn't know, he kind of caught on very quickly. He was a really good first pick."

A year later, Walsh made another inspired pick, drafting Miller with the 11th overall selection. Together, Person and Miller formed one of the NBA's most formidable sharpshooting duos. Joining forces before Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were even born, Person and Miller were the original Splash Brothers.

They combined to make 244 3-pointers during the 1989-90 season, 191 a year later, and 261 in 1991-92. In an era when the 3-point shot wasn't utilized with nearly the frequency that it is today, those were astronomical numbers.

PACERS VOTE: Pick Your Starting Five from the 1980s »

Individually, Person continued to excel, leading the team in scoring in both his second and third NBA seasons, including a career-best scoring average of 21.6 points per game in 1988-89. The Pacers missed the playoffs in each of those years, but Walsh was slowly building a strong core around Person and Miller, drafting 7-foot-4 center Rik Smits in 1988 and trading for skilled forward Detlef Schrempf in Feb. 1989.

The Pacers returned to the playoffs in the 1989-90 season, the first of what would eventually be seven consecutive postseason berths. The first three of those teams were led by Miller and Person, who finished first and second on the team in scoring in each of those years, combining to average 44.3 points per game in 1989-90, 41.0 in 1990-91, and 39.2 in 1991-92.

In 1990, Indiana was swept in the first round by Detroit, the eventual NBA champions. But the next season, the Pacers drew a first-round matchup with the Celtics, setting the stage for another memorable postseason performance from Person.

Person loved to talk trash and had created a personal rivalry of sorts over the years with the great Larry Bird.

Being the competitor that he is, Bird didn't shy away from Person's bravado. According to legend, when the two teams met in the month of December, Bird drilled a 3-pointer in front of the Pacers' bench. Aggravated by something Person had said to him earlier, Bird had promised Person a Christmas present. As his shot was falling through the net, he turned, found Person sitting on the Indiana bench, and exclaimed, "Merry...Christmas!"

Needless to say, Person was fired up for the chance to go head-to-head with Larry Legend in a playoff series.

"The thing about Chuck, no matter if it was the regular season or the playoffs, he came to play," Bird told Pacers.com in a 2004 oral history. "I think he played harder against me than anybody else, but it was good. In this league, a lot of times the players don’t give you any resistance. But when you played against Chuck, you knew you had to play and you had to play hard – and if you didn’t play well, they’d probably beat you."

Indiana dropped Game 1 of the best-of-five series in Boston, but stunned the Celtics with a 130-118 win in Game 2. Person starred on that particular night, scoring 39 points and hitting what was then an NBA playoff record seven 3-pointers.

The Pacers, however, squandered homecourt advantage in Game 3 at Market Square Arena, as the Celtics smothered Person, limiting him to just six points on eight shot attempts.

Indiana bounced back to win Game 4 behind 30 points from Person and 27 from Miller, sending the series back to Boston for a winner-take-all Game 5.

Bird exited that contest late in the first half after a hard fall against the hardwood, but returned midway through the third quarter and led the Celtics back into the lead, dueling with Person down the stretch.

Bird finished the night with 32 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists. Person went 5-for-9 from 3-point range on his way to 32 points, four boards, and four assists.

Boston led by as many as 16 points in the second half, but Indiana rallied to cut the deficit to two in the closing seconds. Off a busted play, Person took a deep 3-pointer that would have given the Pacers the lead, but it rimmed out and the Celtics survived to take the game and the series.

The Pacers returned to the playoffs the next season, where they met up with the Celtics once again, but this time they were swept in three games.

By that point, it had become clear to Walsh that he had to make a move to get the team to the next level. Person admitted he saw the writing on the wall.

"We had Rik Smits, who was coming into his own, and myself and Reggie and Detlef Schrempf," Person told Pacers.com in 2004. "Those four guys alone, we all had a lot of talent, we all had the opportunity to become great players but, obviously, we didn’t have enough minutes and enough balls to go around so some changes had to be made. I was the one that got traded."

That trade came in Sept. 1992, when Walsh sent Person and Micheal Williams to Minnesota for Sam Mitchell and Pooh Richardson. Mitchell wound up being a valuable role player on two Eastern Conference Finals teams. Richardson was part of a package that Walsh used to acquire Mark Jackson from the Clippers two seasons later, setting the stage for the franchise's greatest run of sustained success.

You know what happened from there. After Person left, Miller blossomed into the team's clear go-to option in crunch time. The Pacers grew into arguably the most consistently successful franchise in the NBA, reaching the playoffs in 16 of 17 seasons from 1990-2006, making six trips to the Eastern Conference Finals and, of course, reaching the NBA Finals in 2000.

Person, meanwhile, never quite replicated the success he had in Indiana. He averaged 16.8 points per game in his first season with the Timberwolves, which wound up being his last as a full-time starter. His scoring average dipped below 12 points per game in each of the next three seasons. He missed the entire 1996-97 campaign due to injury, but managed to last three more seasons after that before retiring in 2000 at age 35.

Person spent a combined seven seasons in Minnesota, San Antonio, Charlotte, and Seattle, but he will always be best remembered for his six years in Indiana.

To this day, Person remains the Pacers' NBA franchise leader in scoring average at just barely under 19 points per game. Despite spending only six seasons with the franchise, Person still ranks sixth in NBA franchise history in points scored and fifth in 3-pointers made.

Most importantly, Person was the first building block for the franchise's most successful period. Together with Miller, Person helped turn the Pacers from a laughingstock into a perennial playoff team. He wasn't around to enjoy the greatest fruits of their labor, but "The Rifleman" was as important as anyone to the Pacers' emergence on the NBA stage.

On Saturday night, the Pacers will honor Chuck Person with a commemorative bobblehead at the 1980s Decade Game against the New York Knicks. It will be a fitting tribute to one of the greatest players in Pacers history, a man who helped lead the franchise out of a decade of darkness and into the light.

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Chuck Person Laid Foundation for Pacers' Future Success

Judged by wins and losses, the 1980s were the worst decade of all for the Pacers. It featured just one winning season, two playoff appearances, one playoff victory and four consecutive seasons of 20, 26, 22 and 26 victories.

Viewed from a distant perspective, however, it was the decade when the franchise was reborn and the foundations for lasting success were laid. All it took were a few momentous developments that remained in place when the Pacers reached the NBA Finals in 2000: (1) The Simon brothers bought the team. (2) Donnie Walsh became the general manager. (3) Reggie Miller and Rik Smits were drafted.

The Pacers began the decade with a 44-38 record in the 1980-81 season under first-year coach Jack McKinney and reached the playoffs for the first time since joining the NBA in 1976. But that turned out to be a false start. They slipped to 35 wins the following season, then 20 in 1982-83. By then the California-based ownership of Sam Nassi and Frank Mariani lacked the financial wherewithal and/or interest to absorb more losses, and put the franchise up for sale.

How does "Sacramento Pacers" sound to you? A deal to sell the team to Sacramento developer/contractor Gregg Lukenbill was on the verge of going through in April, 1983 when Mel and Herb Simon answered the call to civic duty and purchased the franchise, with help from a grant from the Lilly Endowment to the Capital Improvements Board to take over Market Square Arena. (Lukenbill settled for purchasing the Kansas City/Omaha Kings and moving them to Sacramento two years later.)

The Simons might as well have purchased an expansion franchise and started from scratch. Not only had the team finished 20-62 the previous season, only 1,255 season tickets had been sold. But they knew what the franchise meant to Indianapolis, having lived in Indianapolis since 1960. They had seen the Pacers serve as an electrifying and unifying force for the city in the early 1970s when they won three ABA championships, spur downtown development with the construction of Market Square Arena in the mid-Seventies, and the community rally to the franchise's support during a franchise-saving telethon in 1977.

The absentee ownership of Nassi and Mariani wasn't going to be persuaded by sentiment, however. They wanted out of their liabilities, estimated between $7-10 million, and some upfront money. Mayor William Hudnut and a team of civic leaders, including current Pacers Vice-Chairman Jim Morris, sought out potential buyers, but Indianapolis wasn't overflowing with potential buyers at the time. They visited Wendy's founder Dave Thomas on his yacht in Florida, but were turned down. The family of former Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony Hulman also rejected their inquiry. Other moneyed sources were approached, without success.

The Simon brothers, who had built an international mall and retail center business, were the last hope. Herb's initial desire had been to simply be part of an investment group, but it came down to him and older brother Mel to save the day.

Hudnut recalled meeting with Herb and his chief accountant for about an hour, at which point Herb smiled and said, "Well, I've got to do it, don't I?"

"Yeah, Herb, for civic pride," Hudnut said.

"We just really backed into it," Herb Simon said years later. "We did it as a civic responsibility.

"It wasn't, 'I've got to do it.' It was, 'We should do it.'"

Owners don't win games, though, players do. And luck was not with the franchise in the beginning. The Pacers lost a coin flip for three-time college player of the year Ralph Sampson in 1983, and drafted Steve Stipanovich instead. They had no first-round pick in '84 because of an ill-fated trade made in 1981, thus losing out on the chance to draft Michael Jordan. They finished second in the lottery drawing for Patrick Ewing in 1985, and took Wayman Tisdale.

By the end of the 1985-86 season they were still foundering. They had won just 94 games over the previous four seasons and their best player, Clark Kellogg, had suffered a knee injury that would end his career after the first four games the following season. That desperate situation, however, brought another lifeline when Herb Simon sought a new general manager.

Walsh had been an assistant coach with the Pacers on George Irvine's staff for two seasons when the job opened. Armed with a law degree, along with major college playing experience and college and professional coaching experience, he had set his sights on a general manager's position for several years. This turned out to be his opportunity.

He got a crucial recommendation from fellow University of North Carolina alum Billy Cunningham, who interviewed with Herb Simon for the job but was planning to join Miami's expansion franchise. Cunningham essentially told Simon he already had the right man for the job on his staff in Walsh.

Walsh, though, faced a daunting challenge. He was going to have to build the roster through draft picks and an occasional trade, and he knew it was going to take time.

"We had four power forwards who were good players, but we really didn't have the other positions manned at that time," he recalled. "I knew it was going to be a rebuilding job.

"After I studied it, I said to myself, 'I think I'm an interim guy.'"

He wasn't, because he made a series of savvy moves that became the first steps toward lasting success. He selected Chuck Person with the fourth pick in the 1986 draft, throwing a head fake at other GMs who might have wanted to maneuver ahead of him by telling everyone he was going to "go big" in the draft. Fans booed the selection at the draft party at Market Square Arena, the start of a misguided trend.

Walsh also hired Jack Ramsay to coach the team, and added veteran John Long to fill a shooting guard role. The combination of his moves and the talent of some of the holdovers resulted in a 41-41 season and trip to the playoffs. The Pacers lost to Atlanta, 3-1, but had taken a major step forward. Person led the team with an 18.8-point scoring average and was voted Rookie of the Year, still the only Pacers player to achieve that honor.

Walsh had the 11th pick in the 1987 draft. His first inclination was to take Kevin Johnson, a point guard out of Cal-Berkeley, but when he realized Johnson would not be available he turned his attention to Reggie Miller, a shooting guard out of UCLA. Fans booed that pick, too. New Castle native Steve Alford had just led Indiana University to the NCAA championship and earned All-American honors, so was understandably the people's choice.

Walsh, however, wasn't swayed by sentiment. Miller was four inches taller than Alford, more athletic and had wide-ranging skills beyond shooting.

"He wasn't just a scorer," Walsh said. "He played the whole team game."

"He was driven to make this franchise viable," Walsh added. "He worked so hard that the other guys had to work hard."

The Pacers missed the playoffs after Miller's rookie season, in which he averaged 10 points as a backup to Long. Their 38-44 record would not have earned one of the top draft picks, but for the only time in franchise history they got lucky in the lottery and wound up with the second choice. After the Los Angeles Clippers took Danny Manning, Walsh jumped at the chance to draft 7-4 Holland native Rik Smits.

Kellogg's career had ended early because of injury, and Stipanovich's was about to. If any franchise deserved a lucky break, surely the Pacers did.

"The guys who won the championships will tell you they were lucky (at times)," Walsh said. "That's just part of this business."

The record didn't immediately reflect roster improvements, however. The Pacers slipped to 28-54 in the 1988-89 season as a coaching change and trades impacted chemistry, seemingly leaving them no better off than when the decade began. But the seeds were in the ground, and the next decade would bear fruit.

The Pacers became a .500 team for four seasons beginning in 1989-90, but Walsh's steady roster tweaking, including drafting Dale Davis in 1991 and reluctantly trading Person in '92, and Larry Brown's arrival as head coach in 1993 pushed them toward the top. They reached the Eastern Conference finals five times between 1994 and 2000, and the NBA Finals in 2000. Miller and Smits were the top two scorers, respectively, six times during that stretch, and still were the second-and third-leading scorers in the 1999-2000 season. Miller wound up playing 18 seasons and stands as the franchise's all-time leading scorer. Smits played 12 seasons and is the second-leading scorer.

Nobody would have predicted all that when the final season of the 1980s ended with the team 16 games under .500. The franchise, however, had capable ownership and management and the building blocks for a winning roster in place. It hadn't been such a bad decade after all.

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