Roger Brown

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The natural tendency is to believe black professional athletes live on an island free of racial bias. They are well-paid and generally beloved if
they are performing well, so who would react to them negatively simply because of their race?

Those who have worn the Pacers uniform say that isn't always the case, however. From the beginning of the franchise's history in 1967 black members of the team have experienced racism in both subtle and blatant forms away from the cocoon of the locker room. The timeline of their experiences reflects progress, but also the need for more of it.

What's clear from conversations with several black Pacers is that Indiana has a reputation for not always being accommodating to them.

"As soon as you get to Indiana and talk to people who have lived there for a long time, you're told right away there are certain parts of Indiana you don't go to," said Antonio Davis, who played for the Pacers from 1993-99. "You know that right off. They talk about the KKK once marching in Indianapolis and you hear the stories about a lot of different things.

"But I can honestly say in being there, I didn't have bad experiences other than minor things. You feel it a lot, but I don't know that I have a story where experienced it."

That wasn't the case when the franchise began operations in 1967 after the American Basketball Association was formed. Some of the players on the inaugural team experienced one of the most fundamental issues of race: housing.

While some of the black players bought houses in predominately black neighborhoods close to downtown, two attempted to rent an apartment farther away. Guard Jerry Harkness inquired about one in a new complex in the Meadows area but was rejected. He had to connect with a local white man, civic leader Bill McGowan, who made a call to another apartment complex on his behalf. When McGowan said he was looking for a place for a Pacer, he was told, "We already have one!"

"One," meaning a black player. That was forward Oliver Darden, who had been granted an apartment at a building on North Keystone after being turned away at three or four other places. Darden got an apartment because he threatened to sue and a Pacers front office member had intervened on his behalf. Harkness later got an apartment at 38th and Post Rd. through local real estate developer Robert Welch, who owned the building.

"I didn't think it would be that hard," McGowan said. "I didn't realize how bad it was."

It should be mentioned, however, that neither Darden nor Harkness say they had memorable issues with other residents after moving into their apartment complexes.

The Pacers had as many as eight black players in their first season, more than any other team in the ABA or NBA. That didn't go over well with some fans. Larry Staverman, the Pacers' first coach, recalled hearing complaints from fans in the stands whenever he had five black players in the game at the same time. The front office must have heard them, too, because there was a dedicated effort the following season to "whiten" the roster. Whereas five white players played for the team in the first season, 11 appeared in games at various points the following year.

The gradual roster transformation finally met with a blowback when general manager Mike Storen tried to release black backup center George Peeples after white guard Steve Chubin had been acquired. According to Jimmy Rayl's account, one acknowledged by Storen, Peeples was called into a locker room before practice one morning and was told of his release by Storen and coach Bob Leonard. When Roger Brown learned of it, he walked into the locker room and filed a complaint. Moments later, Rayl — a white former Mr. Basketball from Kokomo — was called in and told he was being released due to the size of his contract.

Brown, a future Hall of Famer, experienced a more direct form of racism following a Game 7 playoff loss to Utah at the Coliseum in 1971. He had led the Pacers to the league championship the previous seasons but had not performed as well in this series. According to newspaper reports, a few fans hurled beer and racial slurs at him as he headed toward the locker room.

"Afterwards, the usually unemotional Brown was shaken up," Robin Miller wrote in the Indianapolis Star.

"It was a sad scene. Here was a man who almost single-handedly beat the Stars in last season's championship series. He just didn't have the stardust this year. He was solid but not spectacular. As a result he'll probably be scorned for the rest of the summer."

Star sports editor Bob Collins devoted most of his column to the incident a few days later, constructing it as a letter of apology to Brown.

"But morons aren't real long on memory," Collins wrote. "In any basketball crowd you'll see a few drunks who couldn't find the men's room without a map. So, they took it out on you. And they hit you where it cut the deepest. But at the same time they displayed the limits of their vocabulary, to say nothing of their mentality."

Mel Daniels was perhaps the most inclusive of all the early Pacers. Having played for an integrated high school team in Detroit, a rarity in that era, and being a natural empathizer, he was a natural for bridging the gap between races. His personality was such that Billy Keller considers a postgame talk with Daniels after a road loss during his rookie season the exact moment he felt like an accepted team member.

That didn't shield Daniels from bigotry, however. Although his experiences as a Pacer were mostly positive as a two-time league Most Valuable Player on teams that won three ABA championships, he did recall — with laughter — a letter he received from a fan that stated something along the lines of, "We believe that white ballplayers are better than black ballplayers, but we like you. Can we have your autograph?"

George McGinnis says he also was denied an apartment after signing with the Pacers in 1971 following his sophomore season at Indiana. He and his girlfriend, Lynda, went to a complex on 56th St. and were told by the office manager, "We don't rent to coloreds." He rented an apartment near Castleton instead.

McGinnis says he didn't hear racial slurs from fans at the Coliseum as Brown had, but often heard them from fans in other cities, especially in the south.

"It was a different time back then," he says. "It happened all the time."

He did have a brush with bigotry following an exhibition game against the Kentucky Colonels at Columbus North High School in September of 1972.

He and Darnell Hillman headed to a Columbus restaurant after the game for something to eat, but were denied service. Not only denied but laughed at by the man in charge.

"I have some friends in Columbus and they told me that guy joked about it for 15 years," McGinnis recalls.

McGinnis says he didn't inform Leonard of the incident, instead airing a more general complaint.

"I don't like it down here," he told Leonard. "If we come back here for another game, I'm not coming."

McGinnis says Leonard replied, "You don't have to worry because the ------- promoter stiffed us out of our money. We won't be coming back."

Hillman had some bad experiences of his own. Visiting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway following his rookie season in 1972, he was taken to the first turn to watch the action. Passing by the Snake Pit, he heard fans shouting the N-word at him.

"I was like, 'OK, this won't be a race I'll be coming back to anytime soon," he says.

Hillman was reminded there were other places to avoid during the playoffs in 1973, when the Pacers played Kentucky. Leonard allowed the players to drive to games in Louisville if they wanted, so Hillman drove his new Corvette.

Heading home after one game, he took the Whiteland exit in search of a gas station. He soon noticed a car full of young white males following him, talking among themselves and gesturing toward him. Farther into town, a police car began following him as well. The kids soon pulled off, but the police officer continued to follow him. Giving up on finding a place to refuel, Hillman headed back to the interstate. The officer followed him for a while before taking an exit ramp. Hillman barely made it to a station on the south side of Indianapolis before running out of gas and was later lectured by Daniels about staying out of smaller towns outside of Indianapolis.

Generally, however, their status as a Pacer helped players in their encounters with police officers.

Hillman, who drove sports cars and motorcycles during his playing career, was pulled over occasionally often for speeding. After the officer looked at his license, the common response was something along the lines of "Slow down, Darnell, we want you around to win basketball games."

The more blatant racially motivated incidents go back many years, but Hillman experienced one after the new millennium while in French Lick for a summer golf outing. He was walking into a store in town when a car of young white men drove by and shouted the N-word at him.

Travis Best had a similar experience as a rookie with the Pacers in the 1995-96 season. The memory of being at a gas station on N. Keystone Ave. and hearing the N-word from some people in a passing car remains fresh in his memory — partly because it had never happened before.

"That was the first time it had ever been said to me," said Best, Best, who grew up in Springfield, Mass. and attended college at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. "That was a jolt.”"

These incidents have become more isolated over the years. It's not as though the Pacers' black players have heard racial insults whenever they leave home, and at some point housing discrimination faded into oblivion for them.

"I've been pretty fortunate in that way," Best says. "Not too many (negative) things have come my way. I'm pretty sure there have been things, but I've always been in a position where I haven't had to ask anyone for anything. So, I haven't been in position where somebody could talk down or berate me in any way."

Davis had the added benefit of being 6-foot-9 and more easily identified as an athlete than the 5-11 Best. He says he felt more racial resentment while playing in other U.S. cities as well as parts of Europe, but he says he felt uncomfortable in certain environments in Indianapolis.

"Believe me, there are times where you are out and people don't know who you are...” he said. "I moved to Zionsville and I felt it there sometimes. You know what I mean? Some people didn't know me or thought I shouldn't live where I lived. It was just something I felt."

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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.

Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Indiana Pacers. All opinions expressed by Mark Montieth are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Indiana Pacers, their partners, or sponsors.

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Pacers Players Not Immune From Racial Discrimination

It won more games than any other ABA Pacers team. It played in the franchise's first nationally televised games. It was feted in two parades, not to mention a ham and bean dinner. And then the players all went to Bermuda, where the star player crashed his mini-bike into someone's house.

The Pacers team that won the 1970 ABA championship 50 years ago Monday wasn't the best of the franchise's three teams that won titles, but it had the most fun, the wildest ride, and the greatest impact on fans in Indianapolis, where a "major league" team had never won a championship.

The title was clinched with a 111-107 victory over the Los Angeles Stars, in Los Angeles, on May 25 — technically the 26th in Indianapolis because the game didn't begin until 11 p.m. local time. It could have happened in Game 5 in Indianapolis if not for a star player going water-skiing the day before the game, but we'll get to that later.

Point was, the Pacers won it all and the city didn't care how, when, or where. It just wanted something to celebrate, and how it went about doing so revealed the team's impact.

The Pacers flew home via commercial jet the next day. A parade was conducted the day after that, the 27th, carrying the players, coaches, and front office executives from the team office at 638 E. 38th St. west to Meridian and south to the Circle, where 7,500 fans were waiting.

So were Mayor Richard Lugar and Governor Edgar Whitcomb, who jointly declared it to be "Indiana Pacers Day."

"Indianapolis has finally been put on the map," Lugar said. "It's truly a big-league city. For this we will always be grateful to the Indiana Pacers."

Lugar was guilty of some in-the-moment hyperbole. The Indianapolis 500 had done a good job of making the city known to the world long before that. Still, the championship had real-world value. It boosted civic pride, acted as a unifying force, and amplified the brewing argument for a new arena that came to fruition four years later when Market Square Arena was completed.

Later that evening the Pacers were honored again at a ham and beans dinner in the Farmers Building north of the harness racing track at the State Fairgrounds. Hambeens Junction, a local restaurant, helped sponsor the event, which made it possible for fans to buy tickets for $1.25 each. One newspaper article reported about 700 people were turned away.

That idea came from general manager Mike Storen, who had built the Pacers into a championship team and was about to leave to take over the Kentucky Colonels.

"Mike gets all the credit," recalls Bill McGowan, who organized the banquet. "He didn't want a big-shot dinner. He wanted the real fans."

The Pacers' 37-year-old coach, Bob Leonard, and the players returned downtown to mingle with the fans the next day for the annual 500 Festival Parade. They brought up the rear in a line of convertibles containing drivers in the 500-Mile Race, three astronauts, and television celebrities such as Merv Griffin, Edie Adams, Buddy Ebsen, and, most memorably to some of the players, Frank Sutton — better known as Sergeant Carter on "Gomer Pyle."

"The biggest cheers of all were saved for the Indiana Pacers," a story in the Indianapolis News reported. "As they headed up Meridian, dozens of young fans, both girls and boys, flocked to their cars for a handshake or an autograph."

As if all that wasn't enough recognition for one team, Leonard and his wife, Nancy, were included in the pre-race parade laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway two days later, waving to fans from another convertible.

"I'd never been on the track before," Nancy recalls. "I didn't realize it was tilted. It was amazing riding around the track. Someone you knew would yell at you and you could actually hear them and see them."

The team that brought on all this commotion played at a turning point in the city's history, and in fact helped create that turning point. Local leaders were diligently working and planning to make Indianapolis a major league city, and winning a championship in a major basketball league that was growing in stature was as good a way as any to project that image.

The Pacers' later ABA championship teams, in 1972 and '73, were more talented than this one but lacked the harmony, raw enthusiasm, and unspoiled demeanor of this one. They didn't win as often or as easily, either.

The 1970 champions' frontline of Roger Brown, Bob Netolicky, and Mel Daniels all had played in the All-Star game at the Fairgrounds Coliseum that season. Point guard Freddie Lewis had played in the All-Star Game two years earlier and would be voted MVP of the game five years later.

Rookie Billy Keller had led Washington High School to the state championship five years earlier and earned Mr. Basketball honors, and had quarterbacked Purdue to the final game of the NCAA tournament the previous season. A late draft choice, he established himself as much more than a local fan favorite in his first season and started throughout the playoffs.

The rest of the 10-man playoff roster included guards John Barnhill and Tom Thacker, both veterans of the NBA, and forwards Art Becker, Oliver Darden, and Jay Miller.

1969-70 Pacers: Stats and Where Are They Now »

Each player accepted his role. Each player was happy to be there.

The Pacers won a league-best 59 games in the 84-game regular season, eight more than any of the 10 other ABA teams. The could have surpassed 60 victories without much trouble, but had gone 5-7 over the final month of the season because Leonard went to a platoon system to save legs for the playoffs.

The highlight of the regular season came in a 177-135 victory over Pittsburgh at the Coliseum on Sunday, April 12. It was a 2 p.m. game, the third in less than 48 hours, and the third-to-last of the regular season. It might be panned as a mockery today, but was accepted gleefully then. Pittsburgh was a poor team, winning just 29 games that season, and the Pacers were fouling quickly at the end to get the ball back so they could break the record of 172 points they had set the previous year.

Still, 177 points don't come easily under any circumstance and none of the Pacers went longer than 31 minutes, so it wasn't a total farce. It remains the most points scored by an ABA or NBA team in a non-overtime game. Only two Pacers failed to reach double figures, but they contributed in other ways. Daniels, who took just 11 shots, grabbed 17 rebounds. Thacker, who took just five, had nine rebounds and 11 assists.

If any one game could reflect a team's balance and depth, that was it.

"We are ready for the playoffs," Leonard told reporters afterward.

The Pacers were the obvious favorite to win the championship. Barnhill even predicted late in the season they would not lose more than three games in the playoffs and he turned out to be right. They swept Carolina in four games in the first round and then eliminated Kentucky in five games in the second.

Keller was called into the starting lineup in the first game against Kentucky in the second round because Lewis came down with the flu and he kept that spot the rest of the way. When Lewis was healthy enough to play again, Barnhill went to the bench. Keller made his greatest postseason contribution in that series, when he clearly outplayed Kentucky's All-Star guard, Louie Dampier.

Freddie Lewis (left), Bob Netolicky (middle), and Billy Keller (right) filled out the Pacers' starting lineup in the 1970 ABA Finals. (Photo Credit: Pacers Sports & Entertainment)

That left the championship series against the Stars, who had put on a late rush to win 43 games and barely qualify for the playoffs. Bill Sharman, who by then had been inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame as a player and would be let in again 34 years later as a coach, directed the Stars to an upset of the Western Division's best regular season team, Denver, in the second round.

The Pacers easily won Game 1 on a Friday evening in Indianapolis, 109-93, as Brown, Netolicky, Daniels, and Lewis each scored between 18 and 22 points.

Game 2, on Sunday afternoon, made history as the first ABA game to be televised nationally other than an All-Star game. Don Criqui and Pat Summerall handled the broadcast for CBS. Summerall was a prominent football announcer for the network, but who else was it going to get when it hadn't been carrying basketball games?

The Pacers wore their navy blue road uniforms in Game 2 because their home whites didn't contrast well enough with the Stars' powder blue road uniforms. It made for an odd sight in an era when the home team always wore white, but it was a small sacrifice to make for the opportunity for unprecedented exposure. The broadcast was blacked out locally but was a point of pride for fans who craved national recognition.

The Pacers won that game less easily than the first, 114-111. Netolicky led the scoring with 32 points, hitting 14-of-22 shots, including 10 in a row in the second half. He also grabbed the game's biggest rebound with six seconds left, drawing a foul and hitting two free throws to complete the scoring.

"I played that way for my man Johnny Rutherford," said Netolicky, a rabid race fan. "He inspired me yesterday when he almost got the pole for the 500-mile race."

Mel Daniels added 31 points and 27 rebounds and permitted Stars center Craig Raymond just eight points.

"I thought we played terrible," Daniels said. "But Los Angeles played a terrific game, especially that second unit."

The ABA schedules were notoriously illogical and unforgiving in those days, even in the playoffs. After Game 2, both teams headed for the airport and boarded the same flight to Anaheim, where Games 3 and 4 would be played the following two nights. Netolicky remembers migrating to the first-class section where he got a look at Conrad Hilton Sr., the 82-year old founder of the hotel chain.

The Pacers lost Game 3, 109-105, after squandering a 21-point at the end of the first quarter but came back the following night to take a 3-1 series lead with a 142-120 victory.

And here is where Roger Brown began cementing his legend.

Brown scored 53 points, still a franchise playoff scoring record, while hitting 18-of-29 shots and 14-of-16 free throws. He also grabbed 13 rebounds and passed out six assists, both team highs.

Brown was just a few days short of his 28th birthday and at his physical and emotional peak. His body hadn't begun breaking down and he hadn't yet been softened by success or his poor health habits. He was virtually unstoppable offensively, living up to the "Man of a Thousand Moves" nickname some newspaper reporters had attached to him, and he played with the regal bearing that made his more common nickname, The Rajah, a perfect fit.

Brown cited two factors in his 53-point outburst: news shoes and miniature golf.

He wore navy blue adidas "Superstars," a recently released leather model accented with three stripes that was about to take over the national marketplace for basketball shoes from the Converse Chuck Taylors. He said they made him quicker. Keller, for one, thought it strange a player would wear a new pair of shoes in a game without breaking them in first, but this was a break from canvas shoes of old.

Brown also found a way to calm his nerves. Admittedly putting pressure on himself earlier in the series, he had played miniature golf with a few teammates that afternoon near the team hotel, which was across the street from Disneyland.

"I thought walking around the course would relax me," he said.

The Pacers had a chance to wrap up the championship four days later, on a Saturday afternoon, back at the Coliseum in another game broadcast by CBS — with "color cameras" the Indianapolis Star pointed out. Champagne was on ice in the locker room and the city was braced to celebrate on its own turf.

Pat Vidan, the longtime starter for the "500," met the team at the airport and waved a white flag, signifying one lap to go. The headline in the Indianapolis News read, "Pacers Are Near Own Victory Lane." A standing room only crowd of more than 10,000 fans turned out to see it unfold.

The players, however, succumbed to the moment. They admitted later they were emotionally uptight. And one was physically tight.

Netolicky had gone water skiing the previous day on Morse Reservoir with his attorney, Mike Quinn. Capable of slaloming on one ski, he put a strain on arm and shoulder muscles that he hadn't used in basketball. It's no wonder, then, he hit just 7-of-22 shots and fired a few air balls in the next day's game, a 117-113 loss in overtime.

"I missed about 10 easy shots," he recalls. "If I hadn't gone water skiing, we would have won it at home."

He says he waited about four years before admitting his misadventure to Leonard.

"The jerk," Leonard says today, not angrily.

Netolicky wasn't the only Pacer missing shots, though. Lewis hit 6-of-21 attempts and Brown's 10-footer at the buzzer that could have won the game in regulation rimmed out. Brown, however, owed no apologies.  He finished with 39 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists.

The players have acknowledged they failed to handle the moment, then and now.

"We were all nervous," Lewis says. "That's why we blew the game. We were like, 'Oh, boy, we're going to win this thing at home before our fans!' But they fought us to the wire."

Leonard, though, promised the championship would come.

"We will see what they (the Stars) do Monday night, and if we don't win Monday, we'll win Tuesday," he said. "The Indiana Pacers will win the ABA title; you can be sure of that."

So, the two teams headed back to California for Game 6, this time to Los Angeles instead of Anaheim. The downtown Sports Arena, where the NBA Lakers had played before The Forum opened in 1967, was available for this one, unlike in Games 3 and 4. A crowd of 8,233, a record for the Stars in L.A., showed up, including Lakers stars Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, comedian Bill Cosby, and movie star Mickey Rooney. Keller isn't sure, but he believes noted actress Debbie Reynolds was on hand as well.

More than likely they had come to see Brown, who was making headlines in the Los Angeles newspapers. So maybe it wasn't such a bad thing Netolicky had gone water skiing, after all. It gave Brown an extra opportunity to put on a show, and in the world's entertainment capital.

If he was anxious, he didn't let on. Nancy Leonard recalls standing to the side of aisle leading from the locker room to the court, anxiety threatening to get the best of her.

"Roger came by and took one look at me and said, 'My god, you look like you're about to go to the death chamber,'" she remembers. "He didn't seem nervous at all."

Brown went on to score 45 points, 21 of them coming on seven 3-pointers — a franchise record at the time — to lead a 111-107 victory that clinched the championship. Lewis hit the game's biggest shot, a 16-footer with 16 seconds left, and added a free throw nine seconds later. Brown, fittingly, scored the Pacers' final points with two free throws with two seconds remaining.

The Pacers got a break when L.A. center Craig Raymond sprained his ankle and had to sit out the last 19 minutes, but the Stars fought to the end without him. Literally, on one occasion. Netolicky, who finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds, exchanged blows with George Stone in the fourth quarter and needed eight stitches to close a cut above his left eye. Neither player was kicked out, which is how things tended to go in the ABA.

Brown let down his guard when the final buzzer sounded, rushing to the sideline to hug Leonard. He had just put on a postseason tour de force never to be forgotten in Pacers lore by averaging 28.5 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 5.6 assists over the three postseason rounds and 45.7 points on 71 percent shooting over the final three games against the Stars. He had played every second in those three except for part of the final minute in the Game 4 blowout when he scored 53 points.

The locker room champagne celebration that had eluded the Pacers in the previous game in Indianapolis came off this time. But once things calmed down and the players began to shower and dress, Daniels — who had grabbed 27 rebounds in the game and blocked a shot late in the game — experienced what he claimed years later to be his career highlight: Brown walked across the room, kissed him on the forehead and said, "Can you believe we just won this championship?"

Brown created a lot of lasting memories that night.

"You have to have a Roger Brown in order to win a championship," Darden says. "The Stars knew they had to stop him to have a chance and they couldn't do it. He put on a show. And I had the best seat in the house."

Sharman had seen plenty of great individual performances in his playing and coaching career, but never one like this.

"In my 20 years in pro basketball, I've never seen a player come up with such consistently superb performances in playoff games," Sharman said. "Roger just dominated, and that's tough for a forward to do."

West, one of the greatest guards ever to play the game, was equally impressed.

"I have no doubts he could start on any team in my league," West told the Los Angeles Times. "I bet we could even find a spot for him on the Lakers."

The celebrations didn't end with the parades.

In June, the Pacers' ownership paid for the players and their spouses to vacation in Bermuda. Becker had to miss it to attend his sister's wedding and Leonard stayed behind to be with his college coach at Indiana University, Branch McCracken, who was near death in an Indianapolis hospital. Everyone else, however, had a typically fun time.

Darden and Keller recall Brown, of all people, losing control of his motorized mini-bike and riding over a mound and into a house. Daniels' wife, Cecelia, ran her bike across the road into a cluster of bushes.

"After that happened, I think everybody became a lot more careful," Darden says.

Rings later were distributed. Leonard, who had held onto his job with Herff Jones as a graduation supplies representative, designed them. Each one included the motto he had adopted during the regular season: Pride, Poise and Perfection.

Most of the surviving players have stored them away, either in lock boxes at home or in bank safety deposit boxes. Darden gave his to the second of his three sons. Brown's is with his oldest son, Roger Jr.

Championships aren't about rings, though. They are about the lasting memories of accomplishment, and this team produced them in abundance — not only for themselves but for a fan base that finally got a taste of what it was like to live in a big-league city.

Even if that taste bore a faint resemblance to ham and beans.

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Remembering the Pacers' First Championship, 50 Years Later

They're all in now, their careers preserved for eternity within the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. And to think they all played for the Pacers at or near the peak of their careers.

George McGinnis' induction into the Hall earlier this month made it a clean sweep for the best frontline in franchise history, joining Mel Daniels and Roger Brown. Together, they comprised one of the few pure Hall of Fame frontlines in ABA or NBA history in the early Seventies.

"A tremendous milestone," their coach, Bob Leonard, calls it.

The scarcity of such combinations reveals the long odds of gathering two forwards and a center who wind up with basketball's greatest individual honor. Boston had a couple of legendary frontlines with Bill Russell, Tom Heinsohn and Tom Sanders in the Sixties, and then Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish in the Eighties. The Minneapolis Lakers had Jim Pollard, Vern Mikkelson and George Mikan in the Fifties. The New York Knicks had Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere and Willis Reed in the late Sixties and early Seventies.

Hall of Fame Central: Learn More About McGinnis »

Compiling such lists can be dicey. Sometimes future Hall of Famers merge for only a brief time, and sometimes one or more of them is well past his prime when it happens. There's no guarantee of chemistry, either, because great players don't like to ride in the backseat.

Daniels, McGinnis and Brown all played together in near-peak years of their careers with the Pacers, and played on two championship teams, in 1972 and '73. But while they helped bring glory to the franchise, they also served as a reminder of how difficult it is to keep elite talent together, even within the course of a season, and that doing so hardly guarantees success. Because other teams have talent, too.

Reflective of the good fortune that surrounded the Pacers in their formative seasons, the front office didn't have to make a savvy draft pick or spend a fortune in free agency to land any of the Pacers' future Hall of Famers, heretofore known as the "Naismiths" for the purposes of this article.

Brown was working in a General Motors factory in Dayton when the ABA was formed, signed a non-guaranteed contract, and revitalized his basketball career at the age of 25.

Daniels was acquired for $100,000 and a couple of players who would never play again when the Minnesota Muskies needed quick cash after the inaugural 1967-68 season, one of the greatest heists in the history of basketball swaps.

McGinnis was signed in 1971 after his sophomore season at Indiana University. The Pacers were on their way to finishing the regular season with the ABA's best record and wouldn't have been in position to draft such a marquee player under ordinary circumstances, but the ABA was constantly in survival mode  and rarely operated within the boundaries of ordinary circumstances. If a team could sign a promising player, it signed him, draft position be damned.

The Naismiths, however, started fewer games together in their three seasons as teammates than one might suspect. And when they did, the team's success wasn't as great as one might assume.

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They started together across the frontline in 70 regular season games, from 1971-72 (McGinnis' rookie season) through '73-74 (before Daniels and Brown were traded). The Pacers were 41-29 in those games. They started together in another 24 games in the playoffs, in which the Pacers finished 13-11. All three started together in another 24 games when Brown was moved to guard and McGinnis and Daniels started on the frontline, usually with Bob Netolicky. On those occasions, the Pacers were 9-5 in regular season games and 6-4 in the playoffs.

In other words, they didn't dominate as much as you probably were guessing.

The trio came together in the 1971-72 season, when McGinnis, having just turned 21, joined the Pacers as a rookie. By then, Brown already was 29 years old, past his considerable prime because of all those games played on playground asphalt in New York and Cincinnati, and his poor health habits. Daniels was 27, a veteran of his two league MVP seasons, with only three more productive seasons ahead of him.

They started together for the first time in the 13th game of the season. McGinnis was proving to be a quick study of the pro game, and showing constant improvement. He scored 29 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in 36 minutes off the bench in the 11th game, on Nov. 5, earning a starting assignment for the following night's game.

"I can't keep him out," Leonard said. "George makes things happen. Now it's a matter of him having poise and doing things the right way and the easy way.

"I want to see him become an accomplished player. It's up to him. He can be a great one."

McGinnis finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds the following night against Utah, but Daniels sat out with a strep throat and the Pacers lost by one point in overtime.

The planets finally aligned on Nov. 9, at Pittsburgh. It would be nice to report it as a turning point for the season, if not for the franchise, but it wasn't. The Pacers, struggling to get healthy and find chemistry within a roster too deep for its own good, lost their fourth straight game, 133-123. Offense wasn't a problem, though. McGinnis finished with 26 points and 25 rebounds (and 11 turnovers). Daniels had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Brown had 19 points and seven rebounds. The backcourt was equally potent. Rick Mount scored 27 points in 33 minutes and Freddie Lewis had 23.

McGinnis, Brown and Daniels started for five consecutive games, but the Pacers won just two of them. A primary "problem" was Netolicky, who had been all ABA All-Star in all four of the league's seasons prior to that one. Removing him from the starting lineup was awkward, especially for him. He scored 30 points off the bench in 22 minutes in the second game of that five-game stretch, a blowout victory over Pittsburgh, and had 17 points and 14 rebounds in 32 minutes off the bench in the fifth one, a loss at Utah.

Leonard then returned Netolicky to the starting lineup, and brought McGinnis off the bench again. McGinnis sprained an ankle shortly after that, missing four games, returned to play off the bench again, then reinjured the ankle, was put in a cast and missed six more games. He later returned to the starting lineup, but with Netolicky playing the other forward and Brown starting at guard.

The Pacers ran off six consecutive victories with that lineup, which provided the team's best combination of talent and experience. Think of it: three future Hall of Famers and a four-time All-Star in Netolicky, not to mention another multi All-Star in Lewis, who in a later season with another team would be named the All-Star game's MVP.

Brown, however, preferred to play forward, and tended to match up better defensively with other small forwards. Leonard spent the rest of that season matching up to opponents, juggling the lineup frequently, with various combinations. He did go back to the Naismith frontline later in the season, but Brown injured his hand after three games and missed the next three games.

Leonard utilized the combination along the frontline just once in the final 23 games, in a homecourt win over Virginia, then moved Brown back to guard. He didn't put the trio together again until the final playoff round against New York, where matchups favored it.

The Pacers won the series in six games, but not because of their future Naismiths. Lewis, the point guard and captain, was voted MVP of the finals, and combo guard Billy Keller was instrumental as well. Truth be told, the Nets' starting frontline of Rick Barry, Tom Washington and Billy Paultz outscored the Pacers' frontline by two points over the six games. The Pacers' trio came through in the series-clinching game in New York, though. Brown outscored Barry, 32-23, Daniels finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds and McGinnis with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Netolicky and Mount, unhappy with their lack of playing time, asked for and were granted trades after the season, clearing up roster congestion and removing one of the obstacles to playing the Naismiths together. Brown, McGinnis and Daniels started 32 of the first 36 games in the 1972-73 season, but Brown went down with a hand injury for a few games and didn't start again the rest of the season. Darnell Hillman, like McGinnis a second-year forward, took his place in most of the games.

Brown was recalled to the starting lineup in Game 4 of the first-round playoff series with Denver, after the Nuggets had won Game 3 to pull within 2-1. The Pacers won, although Brown scored just nine points. They won the following game as well to clinch the series. Daniels finished with 29 points and 23 rebounds, McGinnis with 27 points and 10 rebounds and Brown with 10 points and five rebounds.

Brown continued to start in the first four games of the second-round series with Utah, but had to sit out Game 5 with an injury and came off the bench in the Game 6 closeout victory.

The Naismiths then started the first three games of the final series with Kentucky, but the Pacers fell behind 2-1 after losing Game 3 on their homecourt. Brown played off the bench the rest of the way, and was merely a supporting player. Leonard talked of returning him to the starting lineup for Game 7 in Louisville, after the Pacers had failed to win the championship on their home court, but didn't. That might have been because Brown skipped practice the day before the game and didn't arrive at the team hotel until the morning of the game, rather than ride the team bus, although Leonard denied that after the game. Hillman had played too well to be taken out of the starting lineup, he said.

Series MVP McGinnis dominated the Game 7 victory with 27 points, 13 in the final eight minutes of the third quarter, leading the Pacers to their third and final ABA title. Daniels, limited to 18 minutes by foul trouble, finished with nine points and nine rebounds. Brown, still a clutch player, scored 10 points off the bench, hitting two crucial jumpers and scoring six points in the final quarter.

By then, it was obvious McGinnis was the team's centerpiece, while Brown and Daniels – especially Brown – were fading. There was talk Brown might retire after the season, but he didn't. The Naismith's last season together, in 1973-74, brought mixed results in the 30 regular season games they started. The first one came in the 20th game, a 118-114 win over Kentucky, and served as an omen. McGinnis was magnificent with 37 points and 20 rebounds, but Daniels had just three points and four rebounds in 18 minutes and Brown went scoreless in his 18 minutes. They were outscored by Kentucky's starting frontline – which included future Hall of Famers Artis Gilmore and Dan Issel – 64-40.

They occasionally recaptured their magic, however. The Nets, now with Julius Erving instead of Barry at forward, seemed to bring the best out of them. In a March victory in New York, with Leonard back home with the flu, McGinnis had 29 points and 17 rebounds, Daniels 23 points and 12 rebounds and Brown 18 points and eight rebounds. In a later game in New York, Daniels had 30 points and 17 rebounds, McGinnis 25 points and 24 rebounds and Brown 25 points and five rebounds. Julius Erving, though, had 39 points for New York in its double-overtime victory. In an even later game, in Indianapolis, a Pacers victory, McGinnis had 34 points and 25 rebounds, Brown had 23 points, eight rebounds and eight assists and Daniels had 20 points and 13 rebounds – enough to overcome Erving's 41 points.

The Naismith's started throughout the opening-round, seven-game series victory over San Antonio, and outscored the Spurs' frontline 58-21 in the decisive game. They started the first two games of the second round against Utah, too, but Brown sprained his ankle in the third quarter of Game 2 and missed the next game. The Pacers fell behind 3-0, then Lewis scored 40 points in Game 4 to throw a lifeline. They won the next two games, too. McGinnis and Daniels both finished with 29 points and 14 rebounds in Game 5, and McGinnis added 10 assists to the mix. Then, the McGinnis-Daniels-Hillman frontline outrebounded the Stars 60-45 and Brown scored 15 points off the bench in the Game 6 victory.

The last hurrah came in Game 7, and it was anti-climactic. The Stars won easily, 109-87. Brown came off the bench to lead the scoring with 21 points, hitting 6-of-9 field goals, playing mostly at guard, but it wasn't enough.

What does it all mean? It's difficult to get a combination of great players on one team without some serious luck. It's equally difficult to get them at the right time and to keep them together for long. They offer no guarantees, either.

But they can help you win a championship or two. And if they happen to reconvene in the Hall of Fame? They become even more legendary.

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A Closer Look at the Pacers' Hall-of-Fame Frontline

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From the Archives: Roger Brown

After weeks of fans voting for their top five players of the 1970s era of Pacers basketball, the results are in.

The fans chose Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, Darnell Hillman, George McGinnis, and Don Buse. The final five is a group that helped shape the most successful era in Pacers history, one that included three ABA Championships.

Daniels and Brown are both Hall-of-Famers. Daniels, who is being honored with a bobblehead on Saturday night, averaged 19.4 points and 16 rebounds with the Pacers. Brown averaged 18 points and 6.2 rebounds per game when he was on Indiana.

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Darnell Hillman, who played on both the NBA and ABA Pacers, averaged 10.6 points and 8.4 rebounds with Indiana.

Buse played seven seasons of the Pacers, averaging 7.7 points and 5.1 assists per game. He made the All-Star team during Indiana's first season in the NBA.

And George McGinnis, who is also being honored with a bobblehead on Saturday, was one of the highest scoring Pacers of all time. During the 1974-75 season, McGinnis averaged a ridiculous 29.8 points per game, 14.3 rebounds, and 6.3 assists, leading the Pacers to a surprise appearance in the ABA Finals.

Voting is now open for your top players of the 1980s. Head to PacersVote.com to make your pick!

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Fans Select Their Starting Five from the 1970s

The Seventies were awfully good to the Pacers. The first half, anyway.

While the latter part of the decade that will be honored at Saturday's game against Portland at Bankers Life Fieldhouse brought decline and near-extinction, the first half brought three championships and an unexpected trip to the ABA finals. That stretch remains the best period in franchise history, one resulting from a favorable set of circumstances that could never be duplicated in today's world.

The seasons completed between 1970 and '75 brought an average of 51 wins despite a massive rebuilding effort before the sixth season. They resulted in titles in 1970, '72 and '73 and ended with an improbable run to the finals. Although the titles were condensed within a five-season period, only four players were members of all three teams – Mel Daniels, Freddie Lewis, Roger Brown and Billy Keller. The starting lineup was different for each of the teams, but the coach remained the same. All were clinched on the road, two of them after failing to do so at home in the previous game.

Here's a look at each of the ABA championships and how they were won.

The Pacers primed for their first title by reaching the finals of the 1969 playoffs in their second season. They had lost seven of their first eight games, and were 2-7 when Bob "Slick" Leonard took over as coach. He won just three of his first 11 games, giving the team a 5-15 record, but gradually stoked the fire in the furnace and brought his players to a boiling point.

They won 13 consecutive games before the final two meaningless games of the regular season to finish 44-34. They came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat Kentucky in the first round of the playoffs, then disposed of Miami in five games in the second round.

Beating Oakland for the title was going to be a different matter entirely, however. The Oaks had gone 60-18, dominating the league with experienced veterans Larry Brown and Doug Moe and the league's Rookie of the Year, Warren Armstrong. They were so gifted they didn't even need Rick Barry, the NBA star who had jumped across the bay to the ABA but had to sit out the second half of the season with a knee injury. They won four out of five games against the Pacers to claim the championship.

1970s CENTRAL: Learn More About the Decade at Pacers.com/1970s »

The Oaks moved to Washington D.C. the following season, however, and were never the same again. Their future Hall of Fame coach, Alex Hannum, refused to go with the team, as did Moe. Barry played, but wasn't healthy until late in the season, and never was happy. Armstrong, who later changed his name to Jabali, blew out a knee in January, just a few days after scoring 46 points against Denver.

So much for the defending champion. The only other former title team, the Pittsburgh Pipers, had lost former league MVP Connie Hawkins to the NBA, and was no longer a factor, either.

That left the Pacers to rule the league. Their roster included four players who had played in the All-Star game at least one of the first two seasons – reigning league MVP Daniels, Brown, Lewis and Bob Netolicky – and an improving bench bolstered by rookie Keller and NBA veterans Tom Thacker and John Barnhill.

They jumped out to a 27-5 record, and finished the season 59-25 despite winning just five of their last 12 games while Leonard rested his starters and experimented with new plays. They made history in one of those late wins, however, with a 177-135 victory over Pittsburgh to set an all-time scoring record for a professional game. They scored 51 points in the fourth quarter of that game, fouling at the first opportunity throughout the last three minutes to stop the clock and gain more possessions.

Despite coasting to the finish line, their record was 14 games better than Eastern Division runner-up Kentucky, and eight games better than Western winner Denver. They went on to sweep Carolina in four games in the opening round of the playoffs, then won four in a row over Kentucky after dropping the first game in overtime.

That left a finals matchup with the Los Angeles Stars, who had won 17 of their final 21 games to finish the regular season with a 43-41 record and then advanced to the finals by upsetting Western Division winner Denver in the second round. The Stars couldn't match the Pacers' talent, but were mentored well by Bill Sharman, who is in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach, and maximized their talent.

The Pacers won the first two games at the Fairgrounds Coliseum. Game 2 was the first in ABA history to be televised nationally, on CBS. The Pacers wore their visiting blue uniforms because the Stars' road uniforms were light blue and didn't present enough contrast to the television audience, particularly those with black and white sets.

The Stars won Game 3 in the Sports Arena back in Los Angeles, but the Pacers won Game 4, 142-120, to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series. Brown exploded for 53 points in that game, hitting 18-of-29 field goal attempts and 14-of-16 free throws, while adding 13 rebounds and six assists.

The Pacers could have wrapped up the championship at the Coliseum four days later before a standing-room-only crowd and another national television audience, but the long layoff between games and the assumption presented by the iced champagne and television cameras set up in their locker room sapped their momentum and focus. They led by 10 points midway through the third quarter, but couldn't hang on.

Roger Brown

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