Indiana Pacers News

Pacers Links: Pacers team up for SportsCenter interview, but David West closes strong

The Pacers play the Knicks on ESPN tonight which means some added attention and an interview segment on SportsCenter with the starting five and coach Frank Vogel.

By Tom Lewis@IndyCornrows Nov 20, 2013, 7:00am EST

ESPN can hype their programming like a motha so when the Pacers get a rare opportunity to play in one of their nationally televised games, as they do on Wednesday against the Knicks, it comes with added attention.

The network wanted to interview Paul George in advance of the game but the Pacers budding star would only do so with the rest of his starting lineup, as Candace Buckner reports.

That's not really a surprise, nor is the fact that in the end David West revealed how much he means to this group in setting a leadership tone and edge to compete every night. Just when you thought you couldn't love DWest any more, he quickly jumped in to answer Stephen A. Smith's final question to the group.

Here is West's answer, but believe me, it is even more impressive in the video.

Stephen A: Championship or bust this season?

DWest: Yep, I think so. For us, you know, the one thing I don't think anybody recognizes about us is all of us (pointing to the rest of the five starters) have a chip on our shoulder. We talk about, every game we talk about almost, where we were drafted and how we felt like at some point somebody in this league said BLANK you to one of us and that drives us. And that's the one thing that connects all of us, connects our locker room is the fact that we have guys that are driven to prove our worth. In terms of where we feel that we can go with this group, we're fighting to be the top dog, the last man standing.

Honestly love how this group continues to express no fear of failure in their unabashed effort to win a championship this year. No one is hedging or covering their bets with any qualifiers. They are all in. Here's the whole SportsCenter segment followed by some links in advance of the game at Madison Square Garden tonight.