NBA Finals
INDIANAPOLIS — Their voices were excited but low. Their faces were beaming but serious. Their celebrations were joyful but muted.
A couple of hours after the Indiana Pacers bounced the New York Knicks and advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in 25 years, Aaron Nesmith sat at his locker with his ankle in an ice bucket. The Pacers guard, who’d been playing through an ankle sprain, was sick of hearing about what Indiana had just accomplished. He was ready to move on, and so was his team. So, when the cameras and mics began to disappear, along with the cyclical questions about Indiana’s remarkable trek to the championship round, he welcomed the seclusion from the outside world.
Myles Turner, the longest-tenured Pacer, pulled up a chair next to Nesmith. So did a few other staffers, who gathered to form a circle around Nesmith’s locker. Pacers assistant coach Mike Weinar passed Nesmith a cup for champagne. That was the only bottle they opened.
After a few high-fives, they were already talking about how to take down the Oklahoma City Thunder, whom they’ll now face in Game 7 on Sunday night. The sports cliché of going on a “Cinderella run” wasn’t mentioned in that preliminary discussion. Perhaps because the Pacers don’t want to be Cinderella, the Disney princess who needed magic to flip her fortunes.
