NBA mascot power rankings, best past and present

22. Boomer: Indiana Pacers

Of all the teams that could have gotten away with dressing someone up in a basic costume, it would’ve been the Indiana Pacers. With a name inspired by the legendary Indianapolis 500, the Pacers’ PR department could have put someone in a racecar driver’s costume and no one would’ve batted an eye.

Instead, they went with a blue and yellow panther and named it Boomer. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the mascot — he does all the tricks (“U name it…he can do it” according to his official biography) and antics that most mascots perform and is kid-friendly — but it feels a bit out of place.

Sure, there were mountain lions that people took as panthers living in Indiana in the 19th century, but they have been all but uprooted from the state since then, so the reference is a little obscure.

Outside of that, there isn’t much to detest about Boomer, unless you happen to be a Pacers employee and he scared you at one point.

He and his supposed offspring Mini-Boomer (shouldn’t his name be Boomer Jr. or Boomer II?) are beloved amongst the Pacers faithful. The list of celebrities he’s interacted with since 1991 — from Muhammad Ali to Justin Timberlake — is impressive.

At the end of the day, those are the most important aspects of what makes a good mascot. Still, they could have found something to better represent the spirit of the Pacers name; something that isn’t based on a wild animal species that may or may not have resided in Indiana 200 years ago.