The three playoff teams that Chuck Person and Reggie Miller had in Indianapolis (89/90-91/92) were a pretty big deal in town, even though they were a .500 club.
Keep in mind, the Central was a really tough division at the time as you had the Bad Boy Pistons and the Jordan Bulls rising. Atlanta, Cleveland and Milwaukee were both pretty decent too.
Pacers got pretty screwed by the merger and were just freaking terrible for over a decade and this was the first time they had made the playoffs.
It also corresponds in city lore as downtown Indy really started to change and nightlife started to blossom down there.
They came really close in 90/91 to knocking off and upsetting the Celtics losing a 5 game series 3-2.
― earlnash, Thursday, 28 July 2022 00:59 (one year ago) link