In Robert Louis Stevenson’s notorious novella, the enigmatic Dr. Jekyll has an obsession with the natural presence of good and evil in each person. His intrigue leads him to develop a potion that totally separates the good and evil in a person into two isolated individuals. When turned into Mr. Hyde, he is rid of his conscience and free to indulge his base instincts, but Mr. Hyde begins to commit unspeakable crimes. After many transformations, Mr. Hyde begins to take over the body he shares with Dr. Jekyll, and eventually, Dr. Jekyll is no longer able to return to his former self.
Sound familiar, Pacers fans?
Our Dr. Jekyll-like fascinations have been aroused through a season of alternating natures. A season split by rational team-building mental exercises, and the insuppressible instinct to root for a Pacers victory when the team hits the hardwood.
In the early season, it felt natural to place our hope in the promise of high draft compensation in the face of competitive losses. Starting the season 1-4 made it easy to swallow watching atrocious defense and awkward roster fits because it seemed to mean that the low-20s preseason win/loss predictions for this Pacers team might be real. Victor Wembenyama might be real.
But then, all of a sudden, the Pacers found November gold dust and were 10-6, and we found ourselves disappointed in a lackluster 14-point loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. A loss that would’ve been relatively important to a team jockeying for a better draft position rather than for a playoff spot. Then, the team gave us special moments on the road. A game-winner over Lebron in LA and an unreal Andrew Nembhard performance in a win over the Warriors won our hearts and slightly changed the formula in our swirling brain chemistry.
Coming off of that bay area win, the Pacers were 13-11 and just days away from the unofficial commencement of trade season. The sentiment among Pacers fans was split. This team was clearly an unbridled joy to watch, and a surprise around the league in terms of record, but the majority of the fan base still allowed realism and hard-lessons-learned inhibition to reign supreme in our minds. That voracious realism was satiated with a tough stretch in the Pacers’ schedule that saw them lose 5 of their next 7 games.
At this point, experiencing Pacers fandom was something akin to torture. We had seemingly made the same mistakes we’d made for years and years, finding ourselves in the middle of the NBA pack. What would the Pacers do during the trade season? Offload their highest-value veterans and start committing to losing? Pour valuable young assets into a trade for a piece that improves the short-term outlook? Pacers fans were in NBA purgatory. This team was clearly too good to dream of picking in those coveted top-four draft slots, but not good enough to compete with the best teams in the league.
Au contraire mon frere!
After a demoralizing loss to the dreaded Knicks had Pacers fans questioning whether or not this team had any ability to close games well, the Pacers traveled to Boston and found a win over the best team in the league behind a dominant first half of basketball and a career night from Tyrese Haliburton.
I started to think about what it would be like to throw away my hesitancies about this team.
Then the Pacers traveled to Miami and went twelve rounds with a healthy Heat team, responding to blow after blow. Tyrese Haliburton showed the world why he’s a nailed-on all-star by putting up 43 points and 7 assists against the team that forced him into his worst career performance in their last meeting. It was Haliburton who delivered the knock-out punch that evening, delivering a deep 3 right hook that left Miami sprawled helplessly on the ground, beaten.
I began concocting a potion that could free me from the chains of fan realism.
Three in a row against teams in the playoff picture proved too much when the Pacers lost to a heavily injured, but very deep Pelicans team, and our neurotic brains were left to wonder whether the previous two victories were really worth anything more than fun memories. But the Pacers responded with an important victory over a John Collins “come trade for me” game, a game during which Buddy Hield’s scintillating 3-point shooting reached a fever pitch.
My potion, brewing nicely now, began to smell more and more appetizing.
Then the Pacers’ offensive freight train proved too much for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ astounding defense. All-star Hali had 29 points and 9 assists, Buddy’s flame-thrower right hand reduced the Fieldhouse nets to ashes, and Aaron Nesmith’s dunk over Jarrett Allen registered on the Richter scale, sending local seismologists into a confused frenzy.
My mouth began to water.
PG’s scoring dominance was a nonfactor in his return to the Fieldhouse because Myles Turner’s excellent boxing out and 34 points sent Pacers killer Ivica Zubac reeling into irrelevance. Haliburton’s clutch execution in that game- he scored 18 in the fourth quarter and 13 in clutch time- showed that he’s learning lessons about when to take over a game, and succeeding when he needs to.
My potion ready, I pour it carefully, shaking with ecstasy, into a long test tube.
The “you must be this tall to ride” Raptors came to town to test the Pacers’ winning malleability. In the middle of the Pacers’ exquisite second quarter, at the tipping point for the release of inhibition from fans, Tyrese Haliburton found his way to a crowded baseline, turned, and shoveled a pass out to Buddy Hield in the corner, then spread his arms wide, inviting Pacers fans into the warm embrace of unencumbered tribalistic joy, and stared into the eyes of the missile targeting system that is Buddy Hield as his launched warhead struck pay dirt. Then, Haliburton, emulating the beaming grin surely on thousands of fan faces at that moment, had the audacity to throw a lob fake in Turner’s direction then, ducking under Thad Young’s carbonite-frozen suspended body, scooped in a wide open layup.
Unable to resist any longer, I threw back the test tube, letting the hot serum rid me of any hesitancy, any inhibition, any temptation to hedge my fandom for the sake of emotional security.
Now, after watching our team win 6 of their last 7 games, all against extremely difficult competition, we Pacers fans can let the Dr. Jekyll-esque husk slide off of our bodies. We can shed our worries about draft position, our title-or-bust nonsense, and our “does he fit our timeline” refrain so that we can root unhindered for our Pacers team to win every possession, every rebound, every loose ball, and every game they play. They’ve ceratinly earned that from us this year.
Pacers fans, we can embrace the Mr. Hyde in each of us.
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Indiana Pacers: Tyrese Haliburton is the physical manifestation of the Hoosier point guard ideal
Tyrese Haliburton's play as an Indiana Pacers is the real-life manifestation of the ideals of Pacers fans over the course of recent generations.