8 Points, 9 Seconds: The Moment that Changed the Course of Pacers History

Today is the 20th anniversary of the day Reggie Miller scored 8 points in 8.9 seconds to stun the Knicks — and the world.

There are many ways to re-live the iconic moment, and outlets big and small are commemorating the event today. For the best looks, check out Reggie discussing it on NBA.com and Shea Serano talking about missing it live on Grantland.

But while those actual nine seconds of game time were great in and of themselves, they are more important for how they changed the course of the Indiana Pacers.

It is the A.D./B.C. moment for the franchise.

There was before 8p9s and after.

Before, the Pacers were nothing: an also-ran bad basketball team that nobody cares about, like the Milwaukee Bucks or Sacramento Kings.

Since then, the Pacers have been one of the most successful teams in the league, going to seven Eastern Conference finals (and one NBA finals) in 20 season. No, they have never won a title, but they are almost certainly the best team that hasn’t won a title from 1995 to 2015.

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The franchise has had three distinct eras in which they’ve contended for a championship since then. The first was the era that was just emerging. Reggie was emerging into a perennial limelight stealer in the nation’s biggest city, and as he got more and more reinforcements, the Pacers became a beast. They came as close as anyone to knocking off Michael Jordan during his reign, falling in a Game 7 against the Bulls in the East final in 1998, then got to the NBA Finals in 2000 only to run into the unbeatable Shaq/Kobe buzzsaw.

After that came a lull. Players got old and the new recruits were still too green. Isiah Thomas coached the team into mediocrity.

But the team built itself back up and, by the 2004-05 season, most pundits considered them the favorite to win it all. Rick Carlisle was running things and took them to the Eastern Conference finals the previous season. Everything looked great.

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Of course, Metta World Peace ran into the stands just a few weeks into the season, and that changed everything. Suspensions wrecked the year, Reggie retired, and the team again fell back into irrelevance.

They missed the playoffs for four straight seasons in what was their worst stretch since 8p9s, and fans were bored to tears by the likes of Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy.

But even at their worst, they were never awful. They have won 32 games or more every year since 1989-90. And after that dull era, the Pacers drafted Paul George, gave the clipboard to Frank Vogel and crawled their way back to a few Eastern Conference finals.

Every fan wants titles.

Second place is the first loser.

Count the ringzzz.

Blah blah blah.

But the Indiana Pacers have been a good team for two straight decades, by and large. They have been one of the final four squads standing seven times over the past 20 years.

There is no trophy or no banner for that, but it is quite the accomplishment. And it all started with Reggie Miller shocking the world in Madison Square Garden.

There was some success before that for the team, which made the East finals the previous year. But when Reggie scored 8 points in 9 seconds, he proved the Pacers were more than just a one-year fluke.

And they have been in the hunt ever since.