How did the Pacers win more than anyone else?

We discuss the great Indiana Pacers teams of the 1970s that won three ABA championships with Pacers.com writer and historian Mark Montieth (markmontieth.com) in Over and Back’s latest episode in its Basketball Mysteries of the 1970s series.

Topics discussed include: how the team was built around Roger Brown, Freddie Lewis, Bob Netolicky and Mel Daniels, how coach Slick Leonard got the team to play together, a wild brawl vs. the Kentucky Colonels in 1969, rallying down from a 3-1 deficit, their disappointment in the 1969 Finals and vindication in 1970, why things worked out for Billy Keller and not for the more heralded Rick Mount, Brown and Rick Barry dueling in the 1972 Finals, Warren Jabali tearing off a teammate’s underwear, adding young superstar George McGinnis to an already established great team, what Darnell Hillman brought to the team, how the 1973 team succeeded despite some unhappiness in the locker room, Daniels and the Pacers’ love of the cowboy lifestyle including bringing guns to the locker room, the Pacers nearly drafting Larry Bird ahead of the Celtics, a Pacers promotion hanging the refs in effigy, how the team nearly went broke in 1975, and McGinnis carrying a underdog 1975 team to its last ABA Finals.