The Indiana Pacers are celebrating their 50th year as a franchise in 2017. Here we present the Pacers’ All-Decade team for their second 10 years of existence, 1977-87.
In contrast to the Indiana Pacers‘ initial years as an ABA dynasty, the second decade of Pacers basketball was epitomized by losing.
Indiana made only two playoff appearances during their second decade and both ended with quick first-round exits. As a result, there was little stability in terms of the roster or coaching staff during this period.
The Pacers employed four head coaches during this 10-year span: Slick Leonard, Jack McKinney, George Irvine and Jack Ramsay.
Indiana made a lot of trades during the decade — most of them poorly conceived. The Pacers of this era had quite a few players who produced for a year or two, but were unloaded due to financial concerns.
The Pacers traded away Adrian Dantley and Alex English and picks that became Andrew Toney and Bernard King between 1976 and 1980.
— Over & Back Podcast (@OverAndBackNBA) October 5, 2016
The team was not fiscally sound at this time, so even when they had good players, management typically traded them to avoid having to pay big salaries that the franchise couldn’t afford.
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Quality players such as Earl Tatum, Ricky Sobers, Adrian Dantley, Alex English and Mickey Johnson were all members of the Indiana Pacers during the decade, but they were jettisoned in deals for cash and/or “cheaper” players.
Despite this being a rather gloomy 10-year period in franchise history, there were still a number of players who gave their all and were responsible for any success the team had during this era.
In honor of the Indiana Pacers’ 50th season as a franchise, we are naming an All-Decade team for each 10-year span in the team’s history.
Each Pacers All-Decade team will have five members and they are listed in alphabetical order. We continue the series now with Indiana’s second decade as a franchise, 1977-87. You can check out the 1967-77 team here.