Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers have never won an NBA championship, and that single sentence has defined a franchise for nearly five decades — but after pushing the Oklahoma City Thunder to seven games in the 2025 Finals, the Pacers are closer to erasing that ignominy than they have been since Reggie Miller was terrorising Madison Square Garden. Founded in 1967 as an ABA charter member with three ABA titles to their name, the Pacers play at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, an 18,165-seat arena in downtown Indianapolis that positively shook during last season’s playoff run.

Under Rick Carlisle, the Pacers finished 50-32 and earned the fourth seed in the East before embarking on a Finals run that announced them as legitimate contenders rather than entertaining pretenders. Tyrese Haliburton’s playmaking is the engine — the man sees passing angles that do not exist for other point guards — and Pascal Siakam’s all-around excellence provides the ballast that prevents Indiana’s high-octane offence from becoming reckless. That Game 7 loss to the Thunder will sting for years. It should also serve as fuel.

Indiana plays the most entertaining basketball in the Eastern Conference, full stop. The pace is frenetic, the scoring is prolific, and the combination of Haliburton’s court vision, Siakam’s versatility, and Myles Turner’s rim protection gives Carlisle a roster that can hurt opponents in multiple ways. The question is whether entertainment translates to hardware. The Pacers have three ABA trophies and zero NBA ones. Closing that gap is the only thing that matters now.

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The Pacers enter 2025-26 carrying the confidence of a Finals appearance and the hunger of a franchise that came agonisingly close to its first NBA title. That Game 7 loss to Oklahoma City will either break them or forge them, and everything about Carlisle’s programme suggests it will be the latter. Indiana plays basketball the way it should be played — fast, unselfish, relentless — and Australian fans who appreciate a team that earns its victories through system and effort rather than superstar isolation will find the Pacers irresistible. The championship drought has lasted since 1976. Ending it has never felt more plausible.

VS — Chief sports columnist, australiafootball.com