NBA Playoffs 2013: Indiana Pacers Don’t Earn No Respect

“I don’t get no respect” the famous words of Rodney Dangerfield, and could be famous words spoken in the Indiana Pacers locker room at times.  Now the old cliche is who cares what the media says, and it’s all about what the team does on the court.  Well part of me agrees with that, and part of me thinks well if the team is doing great out there, isn’t some sort of respect earned?  Shouldn’t there be some spotlight shone on what the Indiana Pacers are doing, and not what the New York Knicks aren’t doing.  Or the fact that there’s some sort of bickering going on with the Knicks.  I understand the media loves a good story, and anytime a player calls out his team, that will be headlines.  With this Indiana Pacers team, you don’t often get immediate headlines because this team does play as a team.  They’re not egos out there saying what he did wrong.  The coaching staff each play their own role, and each player has their own role.

As a fan, you want your team to have some of that national love to say hey ESPN is talking about our team. I use ESPN as let’s face it, they’re the main sports source.  If you’re liked by them, you know all other sport centers pick up on it.  I know as the Pacers team go, there won’t be any “Indiana Pacers watch” or “Indiana Pacers alerts”, but any small amount of publicity is due.  They’re playing a great series right now, even with that one loss.  Then you look at the Hawks series, and think that the Pacers should have came out that cleaner as well. I mean really the Knicks did what they needed to do to earn the number two spot, but you could just as well say the Pacers failed to capture the number two spot with that small fall at the end of the season.

Even right there, you have Mike Greenberg from ESPN slightly the Indiana Pacers in a way, as he says no one is disrespecting the Pacers, but I do feel like if you’re opening with that statement, you’re almost setting up for no respect. It’s like adding “no offense” to something that you PROBABLY meant to be offensive.  No offense of course.  It’s just a fine line between wanting something bigger for your team as the Pacers do want some sort of national exposure when you look at the great things they’re doing.  They have a blooming superstar in Paul George.  They have a fantastic center who does so much for the Indianapolis community in Roy Hibbert.  They have George Hill, an Indianapolis native playing for a local team that he grew up watching. There’s David West, who has been as solid as ever, and hopefully will be an Indiana Pacer after this season.  Lance Stephenson is a guy who’s showing that Larry Bird did see something, and as a fan, I was totally wrong about.  That’s five story lines right there that ESPN could talk up and praise about the Indiana Pacers.  We’re all searching for some sort of respect, or else you’re not living.  Respect is something that goes a long way in life.  It’s also something that the Indiana Pacers aren’t always getting.  But taking out the New York Knicks, and possibly putting up a big fight in the Conference Finals could go a long way towards earning that respect.