Breaking: Kevin Durant just got traded to the Rockets. Details here.

Tonight’s playoff game

1. Go Pacers

Indiana isn’t the origin of basketball. It’s not the most successful basketball state. But it’s definitely the soul of American basketball. 

Its history with the sport can be explained as such: They treat everything hoops-related like a cult. High school basketball is a cult. Bob Knight is a cult. There’s a cult around the movie ‘Hoosiers.’ The ABA Pacers were such a cult they convinced the NBA to absorb them. Their very midwestern catch phrase -- In 49 states, it’s just basketball, but this is Indiana -- basically cops to this. 

As an NBA town, it’s the most secure small-market franchise in the league. There aren’t relocation rumors or leverage plays from the owner every five years. The Pacers will not be moving to Seattle, Las Vegas or Nashville. They also won’t be paying the luxury tax, tanking, picking in the top 10, or providing brunch.

They’ve had exactly one career-long superstar since joining the NBA. He … 

1. Never won anything

2. Has murals, a statue, a permanent courtside seat for every big game 

The state of Indiana also pumps out NBA players; a few names born and raised there: Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson, Louie Dampier, Zach Randolph, Shawn Kemp, Desmond Bane, Darius Garland, Eric Gordon, Jeff Teague, Gary Harris, George Hill, Jimmy King, Courtney Lee, Dick Van Arsdale, Gordon Hayward, etc. 

They are, in a non-manufactured way, basketball. 

Oklahoma City, a great team that isn’t even particularly unlikable, is the opposite. The Thunder are hatched from a scheme to commit franchise theft. They stole their team from Seattle.

Before that, they tried to steal the Hornets from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Before that, in 1997, they almost got an NHL team, figuring it was the only realistic Big 4 sports league it could lure to a city sprung from a land run, which has been living on gimmicks ever since.

Nothing about their relationship to basketball is organic. They don’t care about the actual sport. A spring practice for the Sooners is a bigger deal than the Thunder in a down year. The team began as a ploy to make an irrelevant place seem big-time. The fact you even know the who/what/where/when/why/how of Oklahoma City means they’ve been successful in that ploy.  

But the Pacers deserve to win tonight. It doesn’t mean they will. And the Thunder won’t be villains if they do. But it will just be another NBA title in the record book. 

If the Pacers win, it will be the most shocking/meaningful/unlikely title in the history of the NBA. It will almost be unbelievable if they do.

2. Trivia

Quick hits

• Remember: Everyone at ESPN picked OKC to win, except one guy who picked Pacers in 7. 

• We will eventually get a BTS look at this game from Netflix. 

• Scott Foster is not on the call for Game 7. There will be no Game 8.

• Reminder: Finals Games 7s are historically very low scoring. 

• ICYMI: The Lakers are being sold.

Reads + Pods

• The NBA’s old ownership class is nearly extinct [Defector]

• Oklahoma City’s completely bananas Children’s Museum devoted to the joys of capitalism [Slate]

That's the buzzer.
Thanks for reading the 398th edition of The Grip.