It appeared the Pacers were ready to take out the champs in their NBA lidlifter for coach Leonard, a native of Terre Haute, Indiana and a key member of the 1953 Indiana University NCAA championship squad. Indiana lengthened its lead to 90-81 after three periods. The host Pacers raced to a 32-23 first period lead, but Boston cut the deficit to 63-57 by halftime. The basketball-crazy Hoosier fans were not disappointed as they saw a heated overtime battle. The scars ran deep between the rival leagues, wounds that took years to heal after nearly a decade of escalating contract wars, lawsuits, players and referees jumping leagues, plus general bad blood.Ī big crowd of 16,178 fans packed two-year old Market Square Arena in downtown Indianapolis to watch their "Celtics of the ABA", as the Pacers were sometimes called, take on the real Celtics. Auerbach also publicly disdained the overall quality of play in the red, white and blue league. Red had denigrated Leonard's coaching abilities then, and the feisty former Laker guard never forgot it as he drove the Pacers to ABA crowns in 1970, 19. Pacer coach Bob "Slick" Leonard and Red Auerbach had a bit of a running feud going back to Slick's days as a struggling young head coach for Baltimore in the 1960's. INDIANAPOLIS - The defending champion Boston Celtics opened the much-anticipated 1976-77 merger season at the Indiana Pacers, who were making their NBA debut after winning three ABA titles over the previous nine seasons.įour ABA teams - Indiana, San Antonio, Denver and the New York Nets - were absorbed into the established older league in 1976 while the rest of the rival loop's franchises folded.
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