During the early 2000s, the Indiana Pacers were on pace to become one of the best teams in the decade. With players such as Ron Artest, Jermaine O’Neal, Reggie Miller and Stephen Jackson just to name a few players, the Pacers were projected to eventually win an NBA championship as they were the number one seed in 2004. However, as history unravels itself, the Pacers were unable to match their expectations and let down their fans by not winning the Larry O’Brien trophy. The biggest downfall of their franchise by far was the Malice of the Palace, where Ron Artest went into the stands and fought some fans that were heckling him. That season the Pacers were projected to be one of the best teams in the NBA, and some felt that this Indiana team would have made it to the conference finals against the Pistons where they could have gone all the way to the NBA finals. However, due to the altercation of Artest, Wallace, Stephen Jackson, and a few others, the best players on the Pacers were either suspended for the entirety of the season or missed most of it. If this moment never happened, the Pacers could have made it to the conference finals and would have most likely been the first seed similarily to the season before where the Pistons won the championship and beat the Pacers in 6 games. The rivalry between Indiana and Detroit was already forming, therefore seeing Wallace and Artest fighting the way they did was unprecedented. However, what Artest did afterwards was childish and careless as he not only frightened NBA fans but also cost the Pacers a chance to reach the NBA finals that season which could have easily happened. The 2004-05 season was supposed to have been a revenge year for the Pacers and would have been the best chance to make the finals if they didn’t act so foolishly and recklessly.
After that season, the Pacers were regressing as an organization. With Reggie Miller retiring to Ron Artest and Jermaine O’Neal leaving the roster overtime, the Pacers were starting to rebuild. Even though the Pacers made the playoffs for the next two seasons, they were always eliminated in the first or second round. As a result, Ron Artest would leave the organization to join the Sacramento Kings while Jermaine O’Neal would continue to be the best player on his team. However, in the 2005-06 season, the Indiana Pacers drafted a diamond in the rough player that wasn’t expected to be anything crazy. With the 17th pick in the 2005 NBA draft, the Indiana Pacers selected Danny Granger who was looked at as a three and D type player. In his rookie year, he didn’t do much as he was still playing behind Ron Artest; however, once Ron joined the Kings, Danny Granger immediately started to flourish as a player.
In his sophomore season, Danny Granger averaged 14 points, 5 rebounds, and a steal a game while starting 57 out of 82 games. From there, Granger was the full-time starter and was looking to be the next franchise player for the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers had a new duo of Mike Dunleavy, who averaged 19 points in the 2007-08 season and Danny Granger, who was looking like a star. This team was headed in the right direction but was still struggling to win games as they would barely miss the playoffs with records like 36-46. Eventually, Jermaine O’Neal would have enough and would leave the Pacers to join the Toronto Raptors, where he would eventually get traded to the Miami Heat. Despite O’Neal regressing during this time, O’Neal was still a massive part of the team, and the moment he left, the Pacers would end up losing four more games then the season prior and would have a record of 32-50. Indiana was in desperate need of secondary option alongside Granger, who would be named as an All-Star and would average a steller 25 points per game. Even though the Pacers were losing games in the regular season, they had a bright spot in Danny Granger to rebuild with.
In the 2010-11 season, the Pacers would make their first playoff appearance with Danny Granger. This Pacers team was more complete with players such as Darren Collison, Roy Hibbert, and a young Paul George, who had a similar rookie season as Danny Granger. This season, Danny Granger was still a 20 point per game scorer and was still an elite perimeter defender. He was looked at as the best player on his team despite the slight regression in his game. In the following season, the Pacers added David West and a few other rotational players to fill the gaps this team had. As a result, the Pacers finished the season with 42 wins and managed to be the third seed (this season was a lock-out season for the NBA as teams only played 66 games). Danny Granger would lead his team in scoring with 18 points per game and had five other teammates score in double-digit numbers. The Pacers were looking solid during this time, as they had a lot of depth and experience. Danny Granger was looking like the face of the franchise and would take the responsibility to one day lead his team to the finals. Granger was on the rise and was making the right sacrifices to help his team win. Nothing could go wrong for Granger and the Pacers as they had not just a young talent in Paul George, but also some veteran pieces such as George Hill, Roy Hibbert, and David West.
The 2012-13 season was the year the Pacers were expected to make a charge against Lebron James and the Miami Heat. The Heat managed to defeat the Pacers in the previous season in six games, which was very shocking at the time, considering how elite the Heat was during this time. As a result, the Pacers had vengeance on their shoulder and were ready to be contenders for the Eastern Conference. However, all hope for the Pacers came to an end when Danny Granger, the star of the team, suffered a horrible left knee injury that would force him to be sidelined for the entire season. With Pacer and NBA fans gasping, the hopes of Indiana going far in the playoffs came to a close at that very moment. The Pacers season looked to be over as they didn’t have anyone else to turn too or did they?
Although Danny Granger did suffer a terrible injury in the 2012-13 season, his injury ignited a young superstar in the making. Paul George, at this time, was a player that was only getting better and better each season. The reason why Danny Granger slowly regressed over time since the 2010 season was due to Paul George and how quickly he was developing. As a result, Paul George, in the 2012-13 season, averaged 17 points and led his team to the conference finals where they once again battled against Lebron James and the Miami Heat, where they would end up losing in six games. From then, Paul George proved himself as the best player as he did the unthinkable and led his team to the conference finals, which not a lot of people expected due to Danny Granger getting injured in just the fifth game of the season. In the 2013 off-season, Danny Granger was traded away to the Philadelphia 76ers, where he would drastically decline and eventually be forgotten in NBA history.
The Injury that Granger suffered was incredibly tragic for NBA fans to see. In his early days as a Pacer, Granger was an All-Star and averaged 20+ points for numerous seasons. If Granger never got injured, he would still be in the NBA today and would have most likely helped the Pacers be more elite as he would have been the second option to Paul George. I believe that Paul George would have developed faster then Granger and would have still been the franchise player; however, Granger would have most definitely been the second option for this team. The best part is, Paul George early on in his career played shooting guard and is currently playing shooting guard with his current team being the Los Angelas Clippers. This means that Danny Granger and Paul George would have coexisted and would have most likely worked out. If Danny Granger remained healthy, I believe that the Pacers and Heat series would have been much more competitive then it already was and would have potentially gone to a game 7. Although I do think the Heat would have beat the Pacers regardless, I believe the Pacers would have had a higher chance of winning playoff games and even keeping Paul George if they had Danny Granger.
In the end, the sudden injury of Danny Granger was something no one expected to happen. NBA fans witnessed the quick rise and fall of Granger’s career. Granger was looked at as the next superstar for Indiana that Pacer fans never got to see. Even though the NBA saw a glimpse of Danny Granger and his dominance, his career went by like a solar eclipse and left us scratching our heads, thinking, what would have happened if he never got injured?
