8p9s Roundtable: Did the 2000 Pacers Stand a Chance vs. Shaq and Kobe?

What was the best moment of that whole playoff run?

Gibson: Beating the Knicks in New York for Game 6. Reggie had 34 points and carried the team to victory at Madison Square Garden. Anytime Spike Lee has to watch Indiana beat the Knicks is great, but beating Patrick Ewing in his last game as a Knick is icing on the cake.

Donahue: Reggie puts on the Superman shirt. The Pacers were the prohibitive favorites to win the East, and the Bucks were a highly talented, but erratic, 8th seed. Didn’t matter. Indiana had eked out a win in the series opener. Then, the Bucks — led by Glenn Robinson, Ray Allen, and Sam Cassell — absolutely throttled the Pacers in Game 2. Desperately needing a win to take back home-court advantage, Reggie Miller showed up pregame wearing a Superman shirt, purchased after he saw it in a store window earlier in the day. Miller posted 34 points, Jalen Rose added 27, and Travis Best 18 as the Pacers wrested home court back. I watched that game from an isolation room at Community North Hospital. My 7-month-old son had dropped from 17 lbs to 13 lbs over three days, suffering from both the chicken pox and a rotavirus that had brought 105-degree temperatures and severe dehydration. He had just started to come out of the woods as his sleep-deprived father watch Reggie add another chapter to his storied Pacer career.

Furr: Exorcizing the demon that had been the New York Knicks. People talk about rivalries now, and I laugh at them: Pacers/Knicks was always a brutal affair, regardless of the time of year. Those two teams had what looked like a real, legit hate for each other, and that made the games great to watch. Knocking them out of the playoffs was like a title to me.

Washburn: You would think that beating the Knicks to finally get to the promised land would easily take the cake, but there was another moment in round two that I still think about from time to time. Allen Iverson was an up-and-coming superstar, and he had put a lot of Pacers fans on edge coming into the series, but Jalen Rose and Reggie Miller both dropped 40 in game one, becoming the first teammates in NBA playoff history to do so. Their efficiency was just incredible as they shot 27-for-41 including 10-of-15 from 3-point range. It was a special game, and it continues to be a milestone to this day.

Next: Best Pacer Player