David West Defined The “Blue Collar, Gold Swagger” Era of the Indiana Pacers

It will be a strange moment when David West takes the floor in a San Antonio Spurs uniform against the Indiana Pacers tonight.

David West was the heart and soul of the Indiana Pacers “Blue Collar, Gold Swagger” Era. The mean-mugging, mid-range assassin provided guidance that a young Indiana Pacers team needed and helped shape a team the tested the Miami Heat more often than not.

The Pacers never reached the NBA finals in this era, but that doesn’t mean his time in Indiana was a failure.

Often older players by default are considered leaders, but David West earned that title when he was with the team. If you don’t think that’s true, look at Paul George’s comments in an article with the Indy Star’s Candace Buckner today.

"“I called him Uncle West,” George said, “just (his) knowledge of the game and the conversations we would have away from the game. For me being 21, 22 years old, that was stuff that stuck with me and has helped me with this unit having younger guys. A lot of stuff that I’m going through now … I was able to vent to David about. About officiating, about play calls, what’s going on out in the court. That was my person I vented to and he was the one who set me straight.”"

PG might have wanted West in those moments, but now he’s going to have to become that leader himself.

While West is now part of the Pacers past, there is one moment with West that sticks out in my mind and particularly demonstrated what he did in his four seasons with the Indiana Pacers. His play was always great and he was one of the team’s leading scorers year in and year out, but that wasn’t his biggest impact.

That might have come after Game 2 with the Miami Heat in 2012.

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The Pacers had pulled off a minor upset and a few players appeared to be celebrating, but David West immediately told them to get their asses in the locker room.

That was the moment you started to understand why West had his reputation for being a tough guy, but more importantly, a leader. I think he knew exactly what the younger players needed. They needed someone to “show them how to win” per se. I hate that phrase, but that was a moment where as a leader West was making sure the rest of the team didn’t get too excited as there was plenty of work still to be done. He also led the team in points that day with 16.

Paul George is always going to be more of a show-off than West, but I think in that moment he was taught how to handle something like that. The Pacers haven’t had a real underdog moment like that since then, but I imagine that might inform the team’s behavior still.

Just his presence made an impact according to Frank Vogel in an interview with SB Nation’s Paul Flannery.

"“There’s a seriousness to his approach that resonated among everybody in the locker room,” Vogel said. “It’s not by anything he says or does, but by his mere presence. Very few players in the NBA or pro sports can do that with just their presence, but David West does.”Hibbert is the anchor of the team’s signature top-rated defense. George is the emerging superstar and the biggest reason why the Pacers are legitimate contenders. But this is West’s team, and everyone knows it.“David is the real reason why this locker room is the way it is,” George said. “The second he came here he had everyone playing as a team and giving himself and sacrificing himself for the betterment of the team. That just flew throughout the whole locker room. He’s so wise. It’s beyond basketball, some of the conversations that we have.”In the locker room, his voice is the unquestioned authority. He’s the one who decides when the joke has gone too far or whether the music should be turned down. “When he speaks,” Hibbert said, “you listen.”"

David West went through the best and worst of the”Blue Collar, Gold Swagger” Era, and was a big reason why the Pacers finally got out of the bottom of the East and became one of its leaders. Sadly we didn’t really get an ending that he or the Pacers would have wanted, and last year was really a waste as Paul George’s injury had the team D.O.A.

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Seeing David West in a Spurs jersey tonight will be strange, but there is still plenty of him left in this current Indiana Pacers team.