The Game I'll Never Forget: Bob Netolicky - former Indiana Pacers basketball player

Basketball Digest, Summer, 2001 by Chuck O'Donnell

Playing with a buzz--and we don't mean excitement about the game--an ABA lifer notches a career high

WHEN YOU ASK ME ABOUT MY Game I'll Never Forget, there are different categories. As far as playoff games go, I'll never forget winning my first championship with the Indiana Pacers in 1970. The thrill of winning a professional championship is hard to top.

As far as rough games go, I could do a David Letterman Top 10 list of fights because there were so many of them back in the old ABA. Most memorable was the bench-clearing brawl in Indianapolis, where of all things the crowd got involved. The police came on the court and they started fighting, with the other team. The police arrested five players and the coach of their team, and our owners had to go downtown and post bail to get them out.

A lot of other games are memorable to me because they were funny. Game 5 of the ABA Finals in 1970 was broadcast nationally, with cameras set up in our locker room and everything. We were supposed to close out the series that night, but the night before, I had gone out water-skiing. On the day of the game couldn't even lift my arms to brush my teeth. In practice, I could barely shoot. We lost the game, and we ended up winning the title on the road. I always say that if I hadn't gone out water-skiing, we would have won the title at home that year.

But on the whole, my most memorable game came on November 16, 1969. That day we flew out of Kentucky for a game against the Los Angeles Stars. We had played the Colonels, and after the game me and a few of my teammates had been doing a little partying.

Maybe a little too much partying. We stayed up all night, having a good time. By the time we had to board the plane for L.A. at five or six o'clock in the morning, I was in such bad shape I could barely get on board. I began wondering how in the world I was going to play against the Stars that day because I was so hung over. And our coach, Bobby "Slick" Leonard, knew I was in bad shape; he berated me the whole way to Los Angeles.

Usually Slick would be right there drinking with us, which was a big part of our success. No, not the beer, but the great chemistry. In terms of team chemistry, I've never seen a team like ours. We all got along. There were no rivalries, there was no friction, there was no bickering. It was like a Cub Scout crew, except instead of eating cookies, we drank beer. Slick was a great coach. He treated us all like men. He expected you to do your job, and if you did, everything was good.

The Pacers had the best of everything. Freddie Lewis was a great point guard, a great ballhandler. We had the best small forward in the game in Roger Brown. Nobody really knows how good Roger was. Roger had bad knees; he was probably playing at 60% of his ability, but he was still head and shoulders above everyone else in the ABA. If he had gone to college and came out and played in New York, Roger would have been as big as Elgin Baylor.

I was a pretty decent power forward for the time because I was a true 6'10". Back in those days, most guys who were listed at 6'10" were actually 6'7". I would be surprised when I would face guys who were supposed to my height, and I was three inches taller than them!

We had a true, mobile center, Mel Daniels, not some tall, clumsy center taking up space. Mel could move and defend. He was a great rebounder. And the guy was as mean as they get on the floor, believe me, because I played with and against him. Nice off the court, but once you got on it, watch out.

So we landed in Los Angeles and it seemed like we went right to the arena. I was dragging through pregame warmups, but somehow when the game started I got a second wind. I ended up scoring my career high, finishing with 43 points. And we won, 129-113.

I don't know who was guarding me that night from the Stars, but whoever it was, they must have been doing a terrible job. I missed five or six easy shots that I should have made with no problem. Maybe I missed those because of all the partying I had done. Who knows, I could have had a 50-point night had I not been partying.

That was my most memorable game, but I remember another in Anaheim in the first year of the ABA. We were down about 18 points at halftime, just getting killed. We came into the locker room at halftime and everyone was tense and nervous and mad. Coach came in and he wasn't saying anything. Something just hit me funny and I just couldn't stop laughing. I just started rolling around on the floor laughing.

Coach was ready to kill me. He said, "What the hell's so funny?" Finally I looked up and I said, "I can't believe this crappy team is beating us as bad as they are." To make a long story short, the whole team started laughing and going crazy, and we went out and beat Anaheim by 10.

Bob Netolicky's Career Statistics

Season     Team                 G      FGM     FGA    PCT     REB   AST

1967-68    Indiana Pacers       71     468     928   .504     819    69
1968-69    Indiana Pacers       78     583   1,145   .509     798    87
1969-70    Indiana Pacers       82     673   1,393   .483     876   123
1970-71    Indiana Pacers       82     651   1,305   .499     774   104
1971-72    Indiana Pacers       83     522   1,090   .479     764    83
1972-73    Dallas Chaparrals    84     650   1,347   .483     851   239
1973-74    Dallas-Indiana       75     314     644   .488     393    94
1974-75    Indiana Pacers       59     189     375   .504     231    49
1975-76    Indiana Pacers        4       8      21   .381      12     0
Career Totals                  618   4,058   8,248   .492   5,518   848
Playoff Totals                  73     475     945   .503     645    61

Season     Team                  PTS      RPG       APG     PPG

1967-68    Indiana Pacers       1,156     11.5      1.0     16.3
1968-69    Indiana Pacers       1,472     10.2      1.1     18.9
1969-70    Indiana Pacers       1,691     10.7      1.5     20.6
1970-71    Indiana Pacers       1,541      9.4      1.3     18.8
1971-72    Indiana Pacers       1,250      9.2      1.0     15.1
1972-73    Dallas Chaparrals    1,569     10.1      2.8     18.7
1973-74    Dallas-Indiana         736      5.2      1.3      9.8
1974-75    Indiana Pacers         442      3.9      0.8      7.5
1975-76    Indiana Pacers          19      3.0        0      4.8
Career Totals                   9,876      8.9      1.4     16.0
Playoff Totals                  1,143      8.8      0.8     15.7