The state of Indiana has a long storied love affair with basketball, with great passion for basketball on the High School level where small farm towns have become state legends for beating teams from the big city. However its initial flirtation with pro basketball was not successful as Indianapolis Olympians and Fort Wayne Pistons were two teams that never made it past the NBA's infancy before folding in the case of the Olympians and moving to Detroit as the Pistons.

A decade after the Fort Wayne Pistons moved; Indiana again had a pro team in the upstart American Basketball Association with Pacers, named so because they hoped to set the pace for the rest of the league. The first player taken by the Pacers was Roger Brown who had been working in a local factory.

That first season the Pacers would not set the pace as they finished in third place with a record of 38-40. It the playoffs they would go on to be swept in three straight games by the Pittsburgh Pipers.