It could be worse: Not all losing streaks are the same
By Ben Renz
With the Pacers having dropped five straight, let’s take a brief look at 2007 when fans had far more to complain about.
The Indiana Pacers have been bumming you out. They’re certainly bumming us out here at 8 Points 9 Seconds, where it is our sacred duty to make you excited about them. As bummed as the Pacers can make you sometimes, it’s important to remember, things could always be much, much worse.
Franchises lose, occasionally in cruel and compounding ways, instilling in fans a sense of hopelessness and assured sloppy weight gain. The Pacers have trudged their way through three 12-game losing streaks throughout their NBA days (1976–present), each during various chunks in the 80s. But there’s an 11-game L streak you may remember.
That latest streak turns 11-years-old in just a few short months. All the way back on February 23, 2007, the Pacers began a losing streak they would not snap until March 14th.
The 2006-07 season was mighty tumultuous for the Pacers in Rick Carlisle’s final year as coach. Before it’d even started, Jonathan Bender had officially announced his retirement in June. In July, the Pacers shipped out future broadcaster and fan-favorite Austin Croshere for mixtape-king Marquis Daniels.
A franchise-altering night on the town for the Pacers
Then, in October, Stephen Jackson, Jamal Tinsley, and new teammate Quisy “Q6” Daniels went out to an Indy strip club — a night that ended with Captain Jack receiving minor injuries after being hit by a car, to which he responded by firing several gunshots into the air.
It could always be worse.
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The major roster overhaul was not to occur until January, when the team shipped out Jackson to the Warriors, along with Al Harrington and Šarūnas “Copy-Paste” Jasikevičius, with the Pacers getting Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy in return (and like all trades, there are other names involved you may need to know for bar trivia some useless day).
You guessed it! That’s about when the 11-game losing streak started. The Pacers would finish a bit respectably at 35-47, but the result meant the franchise would miss out on the playoffs for the first time in ten years.
Carlisle got canned, and the Jim O’Brien era would begin. As for Captain Jack? Well, that was the year of the We Believe Warriors, who knocked out Dirk’s 1-seeded Mavericks — though Jackson, ever on-brand, was ejected in two of the series’ six games.
Things can always be much worse, and as Pacers fans, it’d do us good to keep this in mind. Good things are bound to happen in 2018, even though these first several days — and the losing streak they carried with them from 2017 — appear to promise little.
Next: The Good, The Bad, and What’s Next
Victor Oladipo will return. Victor Oladipo will bring salvation.