The Pacers are known to never show off their bad luck in history. They are known as the Iron Blood Team and are strong and strong.

On July 19, the Indiana Pacers have left a unique mark in the history of professional basketball with their tenacious team culture since joining the ABA League in 1967. This small market team from the Midwest of the United States has proved that "iron-blooded spirit" is by no means false - they have maintained the longest continuous non-show record of the four major professional sports leagues in North America (39 years as of 2025), and has never voluntarily given up on competition even in the most difficult times. This philosophy of competitive in-depth marrow has made Pacers a unique landscape in the NBA territory. The overlord gene in the ABA period (1967-1976)**

The Pacers' iron-blooded tradition can be traced back to the early days of the founding team. In the nine seasons of the ABA League, the team reached the Finals five times and won three times (1970, 1972, 1973), creating the best record of the ABA team at that time. The offensive and defensive system created by legendary coach Bob "Sniper" Leonard cooperates with tough guy players such as Mel Daniels, Roger Brown, and George McGinnis to shape the team's initial competitive core. In the tiebreak battle against the Los Angeles Stars in the 1970 Finals, the Pacers completed a shocking reversal while falling 13 points behind in the last 3 minutes. This spirit of never giving up became the core code of the team's DNA.

**NBA Transition Persistence (1976-1987)**

When the NBA merged with the ABA in 1976, the Pacers were the least favored of the four surviving teams. Without the prosperity of New York and the plateau home court in Denver, the Indiana people survived in the simplest way: the team's total salary in the 1979-80 season was only $1.8 million (the lowest in the league), but still entered the playoffs with a record of 37 wins. The famous quote from then-General Manager Bob Kinsey "We can't afford superstars, but we can train fighters" became the operating principle. During this period, Reggie Miller's sister Cheryl Miller once commented: "Indiana players are like farmers in the Midwest harvesting corn - they may not be the fastest and strongest, but they are definitely the toughest. "

**The iron-blooded peak of the Miller era (1987-2005)**

Reggie Miller, selected in 1987, pushed the Pacers' spirit to the extreme. This thin shooter used his 18-year career to interpret what a "tough guy" is - he insisted on playing in the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals G5, the 1995 Madison Square Garden 8.9 seconds 8, and the 2000 Finals with a knee injury and OK team. Phil Jackson, then the Lakers coach, admitted after the game: "They are like a group of football linebackers wearing basketball shoes." It is worth mentioning that between 1999 and 2004, the Pacers maintained 50+ wins for six consecutive years but never paid luxury taxes, becoming a model for small-sized market operations. The inheritance of the post-Miller era (2005-2017) The Pacers in the reconstruction period still refused to show off their bad luck. The team core of the 2009-10 season, Danny Granger, publicly opposed the management's "strategic loss": "Our locker room is hung with an ABA-era tactical board, which says 'dignity is more precious than lottery'. "This spirit was continued in the Paul George era - in the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals, he fought the Heat's Big Three in seven games, and in 2014 George returned to the fire 214 days after suffering an open fracture. Then-President Larry Bird said: "When we consider the deal, the first thing we evaluate is not the player talent, but whether he can persist in practicing for two hours a day in the cornfield. "

**Active Iron Blood Corps (2017-2025)**

The Pacers with Tyres Halliburton as the core are still continuing the tradition. In the 2023-24 season, while the team set a record offensive efficiency (120.5), the team ranked second in the league in terms of interfering passes per game (18.7 times). Head coach Rick Carlisle said: "We require every player to complete the Indiana triple challenge" in training - 30 sets of back-runs, 50 bottom corner threes, and 10 floor ball swings. "This style makes the Pacers the team that has made the most offensive fouls from opponents in the past five years (1.8 times per game).

**The Iron Willingness of the Data**

can better reflect the Pacers' particularity through comparative analysis:

-Since the implementation of the Lotto system in 1986, the Pacers have only won three top five picks (Rick Schmitz in 1988, George McLeod in 1989, Paul George in 2010), and the Knicks had 9

-The team's historical winning rate 50.3% (as of 2025), ranked 12th among existing NBA teams, higher than the Rockets (50.1%) and Heat (49.8%) with more championships - the Pacers players selected for the best defensive team in the past 20 years (15 times) is an infinite time to score the number of scoring champions (0 times) in the same period. The Pacers' success is no accident. Its scouting system is known for its "high basketball IQ + strong willpower" players: when Oladipo was selected in 2017, his predicted pick was only at the end of the first round, and Sabonis Jr. was generally regarded as a disgrace in 2020. The team has also created a "community co-construction plan" - each new player needs to complete 10 hours of community service to obtain the locker key. This sense of cultural identity has made the renewal rate of core players in the past decade as high as 83%.

When the modern NBA increasingly emphasizes superstar groups and traffic economy, Pacers are like "craftsmen" in the basketball world, proving in the most traditional way: steel-like will can make up for the gap in talent, and small markets can also write great basketball epics. As the slogan on the wall of the team's training hall said: "There is no All-Star production here, we forge warriors."