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The 5 best NBA Finals losers since 2000

By Luke Duffy

Allen Iverson (L) of the Philadelphia 76ers and Kobe Bryant (R) of the Los Angeles Lakers (R) exchange words at the end of game two of the NBA Finals 08 June 2001 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Lakers won 98-89 to tie the seven-game series 1-1. AFP PHOTO/Jeff HAYNES (Photo by JEFF HAYNES / AFP) (Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP via Getty Images)
Allen Iverson (L) of the Philadelphia 76ers and Kobe Bryant (R) of the Los Angeles Lakers (R) exchange words at the end of game two of the NBA Finals 08 June 2001 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Lakers won 98-89 to tie the seven-game series 1-1. AFP PHOTO/Jeff HAYNES (Photo by JEFF HAYNES / AFP) (Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP via Getty Images) /
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Indiana Pacers
NBA (Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP via Getty Images) /

5. 2000 Indiana Pacers

The 2000 Indiana Pacers squeak in ahead of the 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers, who were willed to the finals by a young LeBron. Had he beaten the San Antonio Spurs to win a title then, which was never going to happen realistically, his case as the greatest of all time is certainly a lot stronger. The 2000 Pacers, however, have a ton of what-ifs that give them the nod.

They were a small-market team coming out of the Eastern Conference which had been weakened by the departure of Michael Jordan from the Chicago Bulls in 1998. Out of the ashes came a plucky Pacers outfit that had actually met the Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals in MJ’s last season before retiring for a second time.

They are easily forgotten because they came along at the tail end of the Bulls dynasty and the first of the three in a row from the Lakers, but that Pacers team had Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson and Chris Mullin, and was coached by Larry Bird. Imagine if both those players had gotten a ring, how differently they’d be remembered. Even Jalen Rose, who is known to this generation of fans as a talking head, would be remembered even more fondly with a title to go next to his “Fab 5” days.

We think of Miller now as under-qualified to be the best guy on a team, but his 3-point shooting stroke was ahead of its time as a viable option to build around. The series itself wasn’t exactly a classic, the Lakers running out to a 2-0 lead, with a particularly dispiriting 104-87 loss in Game 1 for the Pacers.

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What gets forgotten about is how they battled back to take Game 3, and even forced overtime in Game 4, before ultimately losing by two points, 120-118. The writing was on the wall at that point, and it hasn’t gotten any better for the Pacers since, even if Paul George did his best to revive the franchise more than a decade later.

By no means the flashiest, and not a big market draw, but there was something charming about the Pacers getting as far as they did. They had a period of two or three years where they looked good enough to sneak a title if everything went their way, but it never did. Too much had to go too well. You still see Miller jerseys to this day though, so their popularity has endured.