There is no more bubble. The Los Angeles Lakers bested the Miami Heat for the 2019-20 NBA championship, and that cleared out the Walt Disney World Florida bubble.
The Indiana Pacers’ bubble had long before burst like a balloon with a pin stuck in it, so they were home watching like the rest of basketball fans except for Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
It seems as if the NBA season that ended last week lasted about two years and that it has been about a year since the Pacers exited the playoffs and then in a somewhat surprising move axed coach Nate McMillan about a minute and a half after giving him a contract extension.
Were the Pacers too hasty with their financial reward or too hasty ditching McMillan?
The one-year contact extension turned into severance pay after the Pacers were whipped by the Heat in four straight games. The Heat proved to be more for-real credited, topping the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics and reaching the finals.
Jimmy Butler aside, I don’t know anyone who ran around predicting Miami was going to be the Lakers’ Finals foe.
Pacers-Heat was forever ago. That series started Aug. 18. Teams hate excuses, but Indiana was short-handed, without Domantas Sabonis and Jeremy Lamb, Victor Oladipo maybe-maybe not because of this injury or that.
The regular-season 2019-20 Pacers, complete with normal starting date, COVID-19 pandemic intermission, retreat to the bubble before the playoff series defeat, were pretty good. The record was 45-28, a .616 winning percentage. They probably can’t wait to play again, which may be in January, or may not be, COVID-19 depending.
Shortly after the Pacers and McMillan were eliminated, Kevin Pritchard, president of basketball operations, conducted a subdued and reflective Zoom press conference.
He called McMillan a friend of longstanding, going back many years, and said “I feel like I’m a better person for working with Nate.”
Accolades aside, he fired the guy and said the Pacers believe they must bring in a new type of coach to move forward. The implication was the next coach would be young, a highly regarded communicator and a fresh face.
Since then, there has been pretty much radio silence in Pacers world.
Other teams have parted with coaches and already hired new ones. Doc Rivers is out with the Los Angeles Clippers and is now head man for the Philadelphia 76ers. Billy Donovan is the ex-coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder and the new coach of the Chicago Bulls.
No one said Rivers and Donovan were bad coaches, but they and their old teams itched for new starts.
Even if the Pacers’ stay was shorter within the confines of the bubble, Pritchard called the anti-virus policy “a grind” and not for the first time expressed disappointment that fans have been on the outside looking in lately.
Emotions were absent, he said, such as the spontaneity of high-fiving the stranger in the next seat after a neat play.
“I hope we can get back to that,” Pritchard said.
Pritchard seemed to blame himself more than McMillan for the Miami result.
“I take full responsibility,” Pritchard said. “There were some good times, some tough times. It ended with a bad taste in my mouth. I want us to be better than four and out in the playoffs.”
Previously last summer, Pritchard was visibly moved by stories of racism his African American players and employees reported to him when Black Lives Matter demonstrations swept the country. Watching and listening to some Pacers take lead roles in the streets, he seems to have factored that into his thinking about the next Indiana coach.
“The players are becoming more worldly,” Pritchard said. “The players are becoming more socially engaging. We have to learn how to communicate on their terms.”
Almost immediately, there was joking the Pacers would not be a Bob Knight, the implication being his my-way-or-the-highway philosophy being outdated.
Two months later, the mysterious person, man or woman (a female WBA or college coach would make a splash), the person assigned to take the Pacers to the next level has not yet been named.