Vote: Pacers seek revenge against Bulls in “Titleless” Tournament

The 1998 Pacers may not be able to get Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals back, but they can still exact their revenge against the Chicago Bulls.

Last week, SB Nation released their latest project known as “Titleless,” which broke down the 64 best teams to never win a championship by division (i.e. Flameouts, Overachievers, Not Good Enough, and What Might have Been). Those squads were then narrowed to a field of 32 and seeded into a bracket, with each franchise choosing their best team and SB Nation choosing two more as wildcards.

For our part, we recorded a pod and broke down Reggie Miller’s brilliance as a screener as evidence for why the 1998 team was the best Pacers team to never win a championship. In the first round of voting, the Miller-era Pacers received 82 percent of the fan vote against the 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks and were also selected as the expert pick to win in six.

Here’s the updated status of the bracket:

WEST 2ND ROUND

(1) 1996-97 Utah Jazz vs. (8) 2004-05 Phoenix Suns

(4) 1993-94 Seattle Supersonics vs. (5) 2017-18 Houston Rockets

(3) 2011-12 Oklahoma City Thunder vs. (6) 1990-91 Portland Trail Blazers

(2) 2001-02 Sacramento Kings vs. (10) 1963-64 San Francisco Warriors

EAST 2ND ROUND

(1) 1994-95 Orlando Magic vs. (8) 2009-10 Orlando Magic

(4) 1992-93 New York Knicks vs. (5) 1981-82 Philadelphia 76ers

(3) 2010-11 Chicago Bulls vs. (6) 1997-98 Indiana Pacers

(2) 2018-19 Milwaukee Bucks vs. (10) 1996-97 Miami Heat

As you likely noticed, and as we previously revealed, the 1998 team now finds itself up against...wait for it....the Bulls. Alright, so it isn’t Jordan’s Bulls, but it is still the Bulls none-the-same. And, in case you forgot, the Pacers lost to the 2010-11 Bulls in a hard-fought gentlemen’s sweep and then were chastised by reigning MVP Derrick Rose the next season for celebrating a regular-season victory on the United Center court.

With that in mind, if you’re interested in helping the Pacers do something they couldn’t do in either series against Chicago (win!), click this link to vote and feel free to hoot and holler to your heart’s content in the event of an upset.

We won’t judge.