Just when you thought you had seen it all in the craziest year for sports, Indiana is supposed to be the Mecca of basketball, but it has been anything but that under Nate McMillan’s leadership. Pacers President Kevin Pritchard finally did what I have been wanting him to do all season long, which is fire the former Super Sonics star, who played with the glove, Gary Payton. Giving McMillan a new contract could have left Indiana Pacers basketball with a black eye forever. According to Dan Dakich, he would be up for any coach to replace the ousted McMillan. The Drive, with another colleague in the Indiana media who calls himself JMB, not Mark Boyle, mentioned that they have been in talks with Mike D’Antoni, but nothing has come to fruition. McMillan served as the Pacers associate coach under Frank Vogel, but he had no excuse to point fingers at anyone. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. The Pacers were never any threat to win a Larry O’Brien trophy under Vogel, either, and when you connect the two together, that’s why I say that. His playoff 3-16 record with the Pacers would make any basketball fan throw up, but the fact that it’s with the Pacers makes it worse, because you know how serious Indiana takes their basketball. Look at former IU coach Tom Crean, and you can’t tell me that the Hoosier State at least knows something about the game of basketball. Because it’s like a religion in Indiana. There’s church, and then there’s basketball. The point is I am glad that the two year old is gone. The reason I say he is a two year old is because of his antics on the sideline and his inability to shut his mouth. It made me think I was watching a bunch of babies that needed a rattle. There’s only one name that I think is capable of replacing McMillan, and that is Reggie Miller, who is currently in the media. If the Pacers don’t give him a call, I think they should be locked up.
