Welcome to Hoosier hysteria: this spiritual birthplace is an NBA Finals venue unlike any other

Tonight (8:30 p.m. ET), the NBA Finals land at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis – the same arena, then known as the Conseco Fieldhouse, that hosted Indiana’s last championship game. That was nearly 25 years ago, on June 16, 2000. Back then, the Pacers, powered by a combined 57 points from Jalen Rose and Reggie Miller, steamrolled the Lakers 120–87. They held off elimination that night but couldn’t survive the next game in Los Angeles. The Lakers won the title 4–2, with Shaquille O’Neal dominating the series – averaging 38 points, over 16 rebounds, and nearly 3 blocks per game – and launched a dynasty that would deliver three straight titles, the last three-peat the NBA has seen. Meanwhile, the Pacers faded from the spotlight.

Until now. A quarter-century later, a storied franchise – one woven deep into the fabric of American professional sports – is back fighting for its first NBA championship (they won three in the legendary ABA in the 1970s). To get there, they’ll need to make the most of their reclaimed home-court advantage: the next two games are in Indiana, starting tonight. “Gainbridge is going to be loud,” predicted center Myles Turner. That’s what the team is counting on after being crushed in Game 2. Despite the 1–1 series tie, the Pacers have only led for 1 minute and 53 seconds combined over the first two games.

Now back on home soil, they’ll need every bit of help to flip the script and topple the Thunder – the 68-win powerhouse (now 81 with playoffs) led by a stifling defense and an MVP playing at a transcendent level. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 36 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5 assists and 3.5 steals in the Finals so far, and his 72 combined points in the first two games are the highest ever to open a Finals series – surpassing Allen Iverson’s 71 and Michael Jordan’s 69.

The Pacers need to rediscover their transition game, stifled by the Thunder’s steel grip: in Game 2, 89.3% of their possessions were in the halfcourt – well above the regular season’s highest mark (81.9%, held by the Bucks). And, crucially, they need Tyrese Haliburton at his best. The point guard, hampered by a leg injury, hit the game-winner in Game 1 but struggled badly in Game 2. He’s averaging 15.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 6 assists in the series, with his three-point shooting below 34%.

Indiana: a basketball sanctuary

A quarter of a century later, the NBA Finals return to hallowed ground – to the heart of Hoosier Hysteria. As the saying goes: “For 49 states, basketball is just a game. But this is Indiana.” Or the other classic: “Basketball was made for Indiana, and Indiana was made for basketball.”

The sport may have been invented in Massachusetts in 1891, but even James Naismith, its creator, had to bow to what he witnessed just a few years later in Indiana. “Here I see what basketball could become – and it’s a revelation. Maybe this game was invented in Massachusetts, but it was made to be played in Indiana,” he said in 1925, speaking to a packed arena as thousands more crowded outside, unable to get in for the state high school championship game.

One of Naismith’s disciples, Nicholas McCay, left Springfield as a kind of missionary, carrying with him a pamphlet of the original 13 rules. In Crawfordsville – about 46 miles from where tonight’s game will tip off – the first organized basketball game in Indiana was played in a small arena built in the style of the imposing high school gyms that dot the state’s endless cornfields. On March 16, 1894, the YMCA boys from Crawfordsville beat those from Lafayette 45–21 in front of more than 300 spectators. Curiosity drew them in, but what they witnessed felt like modern-day gladiator combat.

Basketball took root in Indiana – a largely rural state, unlike its more urban neighbors like Illinois or Ohio. Baseball didn’t catch on, and schools were often too small to field the giant rosters needed for football. But five kids to play this new “basket ball,” where dribbling wasn’t even allowed yet? That was doable.

The game, designed for indoor play during winter, didn’t interfere with the rhythms of planting and harvest. It was cheap, accessible, and perfect for small towns. In 1911, the high school tournament began. By 1916, 204 schools were competing. By 1924, that number was 564, and by the 1950s, over 900. That tournament – now evolved but still central – became part of Indiana’s identity. The spark behind Hoosier Hysteria, the madness that defines the state’s love for the game.

The legend goes that in pioneer times, when someone knocked on a cabin door, the reply from within was, “Who’s yere?” The “Who’s Yere?” state became the Hoosier State. It’s the home of John Wooden, who played at Purdue before becoming a UCLA coaching legend alongside stars like Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton. Of local icons like Damon Bailey and global stars like Oscar Robertson – born in Tennessee but raised in Indiana from infancy. And of course, Larry Bird – “The Hick from French Lick.”

Today, a plaque in Crawfordsville marks the site of that first serious game: “Cradle of Basketball.”

Gainbridge Fieldhouse was built to honor those roots – an homage to Indiana’s old-school basketball barns. Construction began in 1997, with a $183 million budget ($57 million from the Pacers, the rest from taxes and private donors), and it opened in 1999 at 125 S. Pennsylvania Street. With its red brick, glass facade and retro, agrarian style, it fits seamlessly into the surrounding neighborhood and the spirit of a state where basketball isn’t just a game.

Hoosier Hysteria is all of that – a living slice of basketball history. From the Indiana High School Boys Basketball Tournament, to the Indiana Hoosiers under the fiery Bobby Knight, to the Indiana State Sycamores with Larry Bird facing Magic Johnson’s Michigan State. From Purdue and Notre Dame to Butler. And professionally, from the ABA glory of the Pacers (three titles in 1970, 1972 and 1973) to today’s team still searching for its first NBA ring. Of the four teams that survived the ABA–NBA merger, two have won titles (the Spurs and Nuggets); two (the Nets and Pacers) have not. Not yet, at least.

In 1954, tiny Milan High School – with just 161 students – defied the odds to win the state title over powerhouse Muncie Central. The story partly inspired the 1986 film Hoosiers, starring Gene Hackman. Indiana has long led the nation in producing pro players per capita – with one NBA player per 150,000 people in recent years.

To win it all, Milan had to get past Crispus Attucks High, who the following year (1955) became the first all-Black high school in the country to win a racially integrated state title. In 1956, they went unbeaten – the first Indiana school to do so – led by the electric Oscar Robertson, aka “The Big O,” one of the greatest and most influential players in basketball history.

All of it – from Wooden to Robertson and Bird, from Milan and Crispus Attucks to the Hoosiers and the Sycamores, and from Reggie Miller’s 2000 Pacers to Caitlin Clark and Tyrese Haliburton today – will be in the air tonight at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, a noisy rural cathedral where basketball still means more than anywhere else.

Welcome to Hoosier Hysteria.

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