All of the Pacers were free to go their own way and relax over the All-Star break. None of them were invited to any of the weekend activities in Charlotte.
They also didn't need to bother with surfing the internet to see how national media members regard them. Those men and women apparently aren't thinking of them at all given the Eastern Conference projections that don't include them as a conference title contender despite what the standings say coming out of the break.
And, they didn't need to remind friends and relatives to catch them on national television against Minnesota on Feb. 28. TNT bumped that game from its schedule in favor of the Utah-Denver matchup.
If they were so inclined, the Pacers could conjure up a big chip to wear on their shoulder the rest of the season. They are barely a whisper in the national conversation related to the elite teams in the East despite owning the third-best record in the conference and the fifth-best record in the NBA, and they were unrepresented over All-Star Weekend for the first time since 2011.
The Pacers don't seem so inclined to worry about it, however. For one, they're accustomed to playing under the national radar. For another, they take pride in having a star-less team that has built a 38-20 record on balance, chemistry and, as Thad Young likes to say, a "brotherhood" that can compete with the bigger names in the bigger markets.
"You can take that for what it is," Myles Turner said following the team's initial post-break workout at St. Vincent Center on Wednesday. "You can let it affect you or use it for motivation or whatever you want. But I've been here for four years and Indiana's never gotten a lot of national respect. But I don't think it's ever really affected us in the way we play."
Coach Nate McMillan hasn't used the issue as a rallying point for the team. Then again, he hasn't needed to. President of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard has done it for him at various times in his conversation with the players.
McMillan has, however, talked about the challenge of small market teams to upset the commercially-driven desire of television networks and others to have teams from larger cities advance deep into the playoffs.
Photo Credit: NBAE/Getty Images
"It's almost like it's written in who the final four is going to be (in the conference)," McMillan said. "And right now we're in that final four.
"The league and everyone else, they want to see certain teams at the finish line - and we're not one of them. That's the way it goes. So it's going to be a challenge for us to get there. But I think we're up for it."
It's not difficult to understand why the Pacers aren't taken as seriously in the East as Milwaukee, Toronto, Philadelphia or Boston, even while they stand a game ahead of the 76ers and Celtics in the standings.
For one, a case can be made for Philadelphia and Boston to show significant improvement the rest of the season and surpass the Pacers in the standings. The Sixers appear to have benefitted from two major trades that made on-paper enhancements to their roster while the Celtics have won 12 of their previous 15 games.
Meanwhile, the Pacers' only all-star from last season, Victor Oladipo, is out for the rest of the season. They are 13-9 without him this season – 14-9 if the victory over Atlanta, in which he was injured 4 ½ minutes into the game, is included – but that record was built on a soft schedule. Which brings up a third point.
The Pacers' schedule is rated as the easiest in the NBA to this point, but is about to get far more difficult. The analysts are including that in their equations, figuring a Victor-less team heading into a headwind is likely to falter.
Darren Collison however, points out the two-sided nature of the schedule. The games that are difficult for the Pacers also should be difficult for the opponent.
"I think we're a great team ourselves," he said. "When I was with previous teams that weren't playoff teams, I used to look at the schedule and say, 'Oh my God, this is tough.' When you're on a winning team I don't think you need to worry so much.
"Give yourselves some credit. Go out there and play your game."
For the Pacers, that means a team game. Without Oladipo but with plenty of capable players, they plan to rely on balance and depth to carry them through the rest of the season, not to mention their unity. Thad Young, in fact, talks of more than holding on to a top-four spot that would bring homecourt advantage in the first round. He talks of moving up.
"We believe in our brotherhood, we believe in our structure, we believe in our team chemistry, our bond," he said. "That's what's got us to this point. We're definitely going to try to keep that and try to get better. And we feel we can get better. We're not many games out of that second or first spot."
Doing so would no doubt deliver plenty of attention to them. That might please fans, but wouldn't necessarily be a good thing for the players. They don't seem to mind life outside the glare of the national media spotlight, and realize the benefits of working amid greater privacy and lower expectations.
"I like being the underdog," Turner said. "I like being the guy people count out. One, there's not as much pressure. Two, you can just go out there … to the outside it's shock the world, but to us it's another day at the office."
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Mark Montieth's book on the formation and groundbreaking seasons of the Pacers, "Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis," is available in bookstores throughout Indiana and on Amazon.com.
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