Growth spurt: Jermaine O'Neal has come of age as a player and leader, pushing the Pacers—a team with loads of promise—into the realm of serious contenders

Sporting News, The, May 17, 2004 by Bob Kravitz

A year ago, Jermaine O'Neal sat in front of his locker in Boston's FleetCenter, his head bowed, his voice reduced to a whisper. His Pacers had just completed an epic second-half collapse, losing 19 of their final 30 regular-season games before falling to the underdog Celtics in six games in the first round of the playoffs.

While his teammates dressed and left the room, O'Neal stayed in full uniform, adopting a pose not unlike Rodin's Thinker, trying to explain his disappointment and mute his growing anger.

"We have to find out if everybody wants to win as badly as I do," O'Neal remembers thinking that day. "We have to find out if we have guys who are going to keep fighting when adversity comes along. Right now, I don't know if all these guys are ready to make that commitment."

It was the beginning of a long, strange summer of discontent for O'Neal, as his coach (Isiah Thomas) was fired and his frontcourt running mate (Brad Miller) was traded.

But many months later, here he is, happy as he has ever been, after leading the Pacers to a franchise-record 61 regular-season victories and getting them beyond the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2000. After the Pacers' brilliant sweep of the Celtics in the first round, O'Neal struggled from the field in Games 1 and 2 of the second round against Miami, shooting a combined 10-for-32. Still, the Pacers won both games by double-digit margins.

Suddenly, it's like last summer never happened.

"Why would you even ask me about that now?" O'Neal wonders. "That's ancient history. What's done is done. From the first day of camp, I've made it clear I'm about just one thing, and that's bringing a championship here.

"I got one little monkey off my back, now that we got out of the first round. But the bigger monkey is getting Reggie (Miller) to The Finals and winning the championship. Not just getting there. Winning it. All of the young guys, me in particular, feel like we owe Reggie a debt of gratitude for the way he helped all of us develop."

Out West, everybody talks about marquee teams such as the Lakers and Spurs. In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons, who added Rasheed Wallace at the trade deadline, have become the fashionable choice to reach The Finals.

The Pacers might have pulled off the quietest 61-win season in league history. And in the playoffs, Indiana's Game 2 victory over the Heat marked its sixth straight postseason win by a double-digit margin, breaking the league record.

"Nobody talks about us like we're a contender" O'Neal says. "We were 20-8 against the West. Somebody isn't doing their homework."

There has been nothing particularly magical about the Pacers' ascent since they began rebuilding after their 2000 NBA Finals appearance.

They simply have grown up, slowly and sometimes painfully, awkward adolescents making their way in a man's world.

In the summer after the Pacers' trip to The Finals, free-agent point guard Mark Jackson signed with the Raptors. Rik Smits retired. Dale Davis was traded to the Trail Blazers in the deal that brought O'Neal to Indiana. The next spring, the Pacers reached the playoffs with the eighth seed and lost to the 76ers, the eventual Eastern Conference champion, in the first round. The next year, the same story: The team sneaked into the eighth spot and lost in four games to the Nets, who went on to win the conference title. The Pacers seemed to have come of age when they began last season 37-15, but personal issues and immaturity led to a blown engine. The Pacers fell apart in the second half of the season and often looked listless in their first-round loss to Boston.

They have mostly the same players this season. But they are a different team altogether.

Ron Artest, the loosest of cannons a year ago, has followed Nets forward Kenyon Martin's example, channeling all that manic energy into his game. This year, he was an All-Star and the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year.

Jamaal Tinsley, who began the season on the bench behind veterans Kenny Anderson and Anthony Johnson, finally committed himself to conditioning and established himself as the team's starting point guard after Anderson was injured.

Al Harrington, a playoff cipher his first two times around, accepted his role as a sixth man and had a breakout series against the Celtics.

Even Jonathan Bender, the oft-injured former high school phenom, has begun delivering on some of his ample promise.

Nobody, though, has come further faster than O'Neal--not just as a player but as a person, as a force in the community and as a new face for the franchise. As long as Miller is still in uniform, Indiana will be Reggie's team. But it's clear to whom the baton has been passed.

"It's just maturity," Miller says of O'Neal. "I think we've all seen it over the past couple of years. People forget just how young he was when he came into this league. But every year since he came here, you've seen how he's accepted the responsibility of leading this team."

Says O'Neal: "You've got to have those trials and tribulations before you understand what it's all about. The things we've gone through, especially last year, those things have made us stronger and better. I know people get tired of hearing the same thing, but we've grown up."