What an NBA Title Would Mean for Two Generations of Pacers Legends
On the eve of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, a single thought echoes through the hearts of Indiana Pacers fans: this could finally be it. For a franchise that has waited over five decades for its first NBA championship, a victory would be more than just the culmination of a brilliant season. It would be the redemption of history, the fulfillment of dreams deferred, and a bridge between generations of Pacers greats—from Reggie Miller’s enduring fire to Tyrese Haliburton’s rising brilliance.
For Reggie Miller, the face of the Pacers throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, a championship in 2025 would be the long-awaited realization of a career defined by near-misses. Miller led Indiana to the 2000 NBA Finals, where they fell in six games to the Shaquille O’Neal-Kobe Bryant-led Lakers. Despite being one of the game’s greatest clutch performers and a five-time All-Star, Miller retired without a ring—forever admired, but never fully validated in the sport’s cruelest metric. Watching Haliburton and this young Pacers squad succeed where he fell just short would represent both vindication and legacy fulfilled.
“I see a little bit of myself in Tyrese,” Miller told reporters before Game 6. “But he’s got the chance to do what I never could—finish the story.”
That story began decades earlier, when the Pacers transitioned from ABA royalty to NBA hopefuls. Legends like George McGinnis, Mel Daniels, and Roger Brown brought titles to Indiana in the ABA, but the NBA championship remained elusive. Over the years, Jermaine O’Neal, Danny Granger, and Paul George each led promising iterations of the team that ultimately faltered in the playoffs. For these players, a title in 2025 would be a shared triumph, one that rewrites the ending of their own chapters in Pacers lore.
Today’s Pacers, led by Haliburton, the electrifying point guard acquired in a franchise-altering trade in 2022, are a blend of young energy and mature purpose. The 2025 squad features Myles Turner, the longest-tenured Pacer, whose defensive grit has anchored the team for nearly a decade. Rookie sensation Kendall Rivers, a two-way wing drafted 12th overall in 2024, has provided crucial playoff minutes. And then there’s Pascal Siakam, the veteran forward acquired midseason, whose championship pedigree from his 2019 Raptors run has infused Indiana with a calm, championship poise.
A title would not only validate the front office’s bold moves but signal Indiana’s arrival as a basketball epicenter. No longer just a state that loves the game, but a franchise that now owns its ultimate prize. For Larry Bird, former Pacers executive and basketball legend, it would be a full-circle moment—bringing Indiana not just respect, but reverence.
Victory in Oklahoma City would mean banners, yes—but more importantly, it would mean healing. It would reconcile the heartbreak of 2000, the brawls and rebuilding years of the mid-2000s, and the LeBron-era roadblocks of the 2010s. It would give the fans—those who wore Reggie’s No. 31 and those now donning Haliburton’s No. 0—a shared moment of glory.
As the Pacers step onto the hardwood Sunday night, they carry not just the aspirations of a city, but the unfinished dreams of generations. A win would write history. And for Reggie, Jermaine, Paul, and every legend who laid the foundation, it would finally bring the one thing they never got: peace.
