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A Touch of Class Erases Tarnished Image (For Now)

By JustSports4u, Section NBA
Posted on Fri May 20 2005 at 3:25 PM EST
More on: (all tags)

Despite all the controversy and bad blood that has been spilled throughout the season between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons, both teams came together as one to say goodbye to an old friend Thursday night.

Coach Rick Carlisle showed a touch of class by taking Miller out before the final whistle so that the sellout crowd at Conseco Fieldhouse could bid one last farewell to the 39-year old star.

Before Miller had a chance to get to the Pacers bench, Piston's coach Larry Brown called a time-out in order to gather his players and to join in the impromptu festivities honoring Miller.

Brown took over the reigns as Pacers head coach in 1993 and quickly turned the team into a championship caliber team leading Indiana to the playoffs on three different occasions and appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals twice.

Before Brown left the Pacers in 1997 he became the all-time winningest coach in Pacers history with a record of 190-138 (.579)

Ironically Brown became head coach of the Pistons on June 2, 2003 leading Detroit to the NBA Championship in his first year on the sidelines.

The officiating crew even gathered around an emotional Miller to pay tribute to a legend.

"I don't think there's ever been an NBA game, a college game, or whatever, where a team is about to move on and someone comes out of the game and the other team is cheering," Pistons guard Richard Hamilton told The Indianapolis Star.

Miller watched from the bench as his Pacers ended their season at the hands of the Pistons 88-79 and bringing an end to his stellar career.

Despite his many crowning achievements throughout his illustrious playoff career that spanned 144 games, Miller never played on a championship team.

Miller thrilled the sellout crowd scoring 27 points on 11 of 16 from the field in his final game for the Pacers, including going 6-8 from beyond the three point line.

Miller's 18.2 points per game in the playoffs suffered as he continued to struggle throughout the series scoring only 15-points in the previous two games.

Despite playing hurt most of the last three season's, the crowd still chanted "one more year" as Miller faded into the sunset for the final time.

 "Absolutely not," Miller said later. "Absolutely, positively, 100 percent, this is it," he said.

"I played hurt and I always gave my best," he said of a NBA career that began in June 1987 with his drafting by the Pacers. "That's all you can ever ask of a professional athlete."

Regardless of the storied past between these two teams the last couple of years literally making a joke of the NBA and earning their bad boy image, both teams came together in 15.7 seconds to honor one of their own and erase (at least for now) the image that has tarnished the two franchises.