Bobby “Slick” Leonard will forever be a part of the Pacers. I’ll never forget one time when he asked Mark Boyle on the radio how many fouls did Myles Turner have. Myles was driving Bobby crazy by engaging with the referee, and Bobby was never happy when a player mouthed off to the referee. “Leave the referee alone” Leonard would say in his southern drawl. You always knew when Leonard was upset, because his southern drawl would boom across the statewide radio network. To this day, I wish I could have watched the orange basketball going through the hoop when Leonard was participating as a Hoosier in the NCAA tournament, because then I would have uttered Indiana’s favorite words, boom baby! As for Nancy Leonard, I’m sorry you don’t have the NBA Hall of Famer with you any more. Rest In Peace, boom baby. I’m still the same bubbly guy you met in Indy, but I have one request. If MJB sees this post, will you please give me a chance to utter “boom baby” during a playoff game? I will even send you a tape of me doing my best Slick imitation. Nancy, I can send one to you too.
Reggie Miller, the guy who was synonymous with boom baby, also played for the Pacers for 19 seasons. Reggie is now a revered colleague in my field, and I am better off knowing Reggie because I got his finger bands after a preseason game against the Wolves about 15 years ago. My mom made a sign and it caught Mr. Pacer’s eye as he was about to depart the court. I got him by the warmup and I was in basketball heaven. No offense to you, Michael, but you were never welcome in the Hoosier State. As long as we were on the court with RM, I was not going to let his warmup go away from my grasp, because I was pumped to meet my hero. We also got the chance to meet the announcers for the blue and gold radio network, and that was a blast.
