Beginning next season, the Indiana Pacers will wear jerseys inspired by the beloved basketball flick Hoosiers during select games as part of the NBA Pride Collection. This seems…nice, I guess? It is a little weird to honor a fictional team via your "Pride Collection," especially when that fictional team is based on an actual team right there in your State, but that's a fairly small nit to pick.The vast majority of people know the movie Hoosiers and Jimmy Chitwood, and Hickory High. Far fewer people know about the team Milan High fielded from its 161 total students to win the 1954 State Championship. So it would be a little awkward to debut Milan High jerseys and continually explain "you know, the team Hoosiers is based on." It's a perfectly fine, easily recognizable stand-in for celebrating basketball in a basketball-crazy place (even if it is a PR thing pegged to the 30th anniversary of the film's release).#HickoryPacers: http://t.co/8M7DjI3iy8 pic.twitter.com/fFOm5uZMok
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) July 21, 2015
This is all well and good, but put your money where you mouth is, Larry. Let Gene Hackman coach a game next year.h/t SI"Our team will be honored to wear the Hickory uniforms because of the attention it will bring to the storied history of Indiana basketball and the success of that movie," said Pacers President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird. "Hoosiers takes us all back to a special place and time."