Pacers to Market Coach, Not Players

That’s about the most bizarre thing I’ve ever heard. Especially when it comes to basketball, and your coach is not named Red Auerbach, John Wooden, or Phil Jackson. But the Indiana Pacers hired an advertising agency that decided it would be in the Pacers best interest to market Jim O’Brien to their fan base, not their players. From the Indiana Business Journal via True Hoop:

O’Brien was chosen as the primary spokesman for the early part of the campaign, Hirschauer said, because research showed the older, corporate audience that buys season tickets finds him credible.

Part of the shift, Hirschauer said, is because many Pacers fans in this conservative market don’t identify with the hip-hop culture some in the NBA have cultivated in recent years.

Pacers fans are more interested in things like hustle, teamwork and fundamentally sound basketball than individual stars, he said.

Are these the same people David Stern hired when he instituted the dress code policy? Has to be. Man, it’s no surprise that Jermaine O’Neal wants out of there — they don’t even have him as their front-man. Let’s just face the truth: basketball and Indiana don’t mix.

Chest Bump to The Debriefing