Despite the fact that the Indiana Pacers have a better record in April than any other team in the National Basketball Association, John Schuhmann of NBA.com is not overly impressed. This is evident by Schuhmann's placement of the Pacers at sixth in his weekly Power Rankings released today.

Of course, it could be worse. At least Schuhmann had the decency of placing the Pacers one notch above the undeniably popular Los Angeles Lakers. Still, Schuhmann, like so many others, has placed the Boston Celtics in front of the Blue and Gold in a highly subjective ranking.

While the list offers no benefit, one way or another, to any team or player, it nonetheless incites a Tyler Hulksbrough-esque response in this fan. I.E., "ME MAD. ME WANT JUSTICE. PACERS BETTER. ME SMASH COMPUTER."

Seriously though, how is Boston ahead of the Pacers? Is this the result of the one loss the Pacers took in April to those same Celtics? If it is, may I suggest that Schuhmann (and others who have a platform where they subjectively rank teams) note that the loss was at the tail end of frenetic week for the Pacers. A week that, with the exception of the loss to the Celtics, was quite spectacular with a win over the Thunder (a team ranked second in Schuhmann's list).

I know I am preaching to the choir on this forum and I realize that my fandom/bias for the Blue and the Gold may result in a personal "ranking" that exceeds the bounds of reality. I will try to temper that but in the meantime, is it too much to ask that the NBA's love of the favored markets take a back seat to the actual accomplishments of the respective franchises?

In the end, I will begrudgingly concede that the Pacers' regular season record prevents them from being top three material...but fourth? Yeah, I think fourth is in order.

At least the Pacers are not outside the top 10 in Schuhmann's list....at least we've got that.