Indiana Pacers – KAT – MORE is BETTER! Myles Turner pick to click! No Paul George at Fieldhouse!

Karl-Anthony Towns – the more minutes he plays, the greater chance the Pacers have of winning! Stats say the same about Jalen Brunson, but I’m not ready to yell for Thibs to play Brunson 45 minutes!
Paul George being invited to Gainbridge Fieldhouse or feted with a video tribute would be inappropriate to the point of comedy!
Jim Irsay was one unique individual, and it will be interesting to see what unique gifts Carlie Irsay-Gordon brings to the Colts.
NCAA Tournament expansion will be an ill-conceived cash grab!

Here is the link for the world’s greatest autobiographical book featuring only the mistakes the author has made:

It’s a game day. Pacers Knicks tonight 8:00 on TNT. I can’t wait. It’s going to be an awesome game. And I’m calling it right now. The more minutes that Carl Anthony Towns plays, the better chance the Pacers have to win this game. I hope he plays. They still say game time decision. Checked right before we went up. Game time decision. I hope that decision is Carl. You’re good to go. Carl Anthony, let’s get out there, lace him up, see what you can do, because the more he plays, the more better it is for the Indiana Pacers. And really, oddly, the same thing holds true for Jaylen Brunson. It’s a it’s been a short series. It’s been four games. So, you really can’t like there are anomalies that are driving the rule. But I’ll show you what I mean in terms of minutes played, points scored, and the effect on the result of the game that that has in this series. Again, short series, only four games to this point. But the more you got Carl Anthony Towns out there, the less effective he’s going to be in the fourth quarter and the less effective he is defensively in the fourth quarter. Man, when he’s tired, there is it’s open sesame to the rim. And the Pacers are going to be in a position to take advantage of that tonight. Four and a half points. The Knicks are favored by. My goodness, people just keep making the same mistake over and over and over and over. They don’t believe in the Pacers. The Pacers have a winning formula. Yes, you can look at the roster if you choose and say, you know what, qualitatively as individuals, they’re not as good as some teams in the NBA. And you can say that. I mean, you can say somehow, I don’t know how you can say it watching this series that somehow Jaylen Brunson is better than Tyrese Hallebertton, but you can say it. Who would you rather have? Would you rather have Josh Hart and Miles Bridges, or would you rather have Nhard and Nith? Would you rather have Carl Anthony Towns or Miles Turner? That’s a vexing one, tell you the truth. All right. And and if they get this done, you’re going to face a guy that you’re really glad he didn’t have to face in this playoff series like they did last year against the Knicks. And that’s Hartinstein. Because Hartinstein is a pain in the ass because all he does things he didn’t score a lot of points, but man, he makes really good, responsible, fundamentally sound plays for the Thunder just like he used to for the Knicks. We’re going to talk about that. We’ll talk about the uh the Indianapolis Colts. We got pins yesterday. The guys in the media did. Uh Colts are going to wear patches like this during the 2025 season to honor the life of Jim Ers. And uh so there you go. By the way, they’re not backwards in the thing that they’re backwards on YouTube because YouTube always in live videos, for whatever reason, they flip it and there’s no way to correct it. And that’s just the way it is. But we’ll talk about questions that we have about Carly Ers Gordon and what kind of an owner, principal owner, football operational owner she is going to be. She’s going to be the head person. What kind of a head person is she going to be? We don’t know right now. But what we do know is that we got questions and they’re good questions. And hopefully in a uh at a time of her choosing, she answers these questions and and gives us kind of an idea of who she’s going to be as a principal owner of that franchise. And the three sisters own it, but she’s going to operate the football part of the equation. We’ll get a clearer idea of ownership as time moves forward. Um I want to talk about Paul George for just a minute. We don’t talk about Paul George much because he gave me a headache when he was here and he especially gave me a headache on his way out the door when he lied to everybody and then he demanded a trade from the Pacers and wound up going to Oklahoma City where he said, “Yeah, I want to spend the rest of my career here.” And that lasted about 15 minutes and then he went to the Clippers and then it was, “Man, I feel really good about being a Clipper.” And then he went to the 76ers. I don’t invite people back I don’t trust. And while he was in these other places, he crapped on the Pacers again and again and again on podcasts. And now somehow or another, the conversation about bringing him back and putting him in a front row seat for the NBA Finals is being advanced. And that’s crazy. That’s cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. That conversation should not even happen. It should be this quick. What do you think about Paul? Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. not going to do it. I mean, what what kind of a I I don’t even understand that this is a debate on any level. Guy craps on your organization, you’re going to invite him back and have him have him participate in some kind of fufurrah as it concerns the Pacers? No. Somebody’s got to draw a line someplace. There’s got to be a consequence for being that level of And this is it. You don’t get to come back, especially while you’re an active player playing for a team that competes against the Pacers. Are you kidding me? All right. Also, we’re going to talk just for a minute about March Madness because the guy who’s the head of the NCAA right now, he’s talking about expanding the tournament to 72 or 76 teams. And it’s just crazy. Somebody, and of course, it’s all about money. It’s just about money. Oh, it’s fairness. There are good teams that are being excluded. Good teams don’t belong in the tournament. Really good teams, great teams, they belong in the tournament. Not good teams, you got to have a standard. You want a good national champion? I don’t think you do. And that’s what this tournament is for. It’s to find out the best team in college basketball. That’s why you have a tournament. They would like to expand it because now the tournament’s about money just like every other damn thing. Can we leave the selfishness out of sports for a minute? Ain’t everybody making enough money already? How much you got to pay people to coach, play, administrate basketball, football for God’s sake. John Melanchamp John Melanchamp admonishing uh Pacers fans. Why why would he think for a minute that we give a damn less what he has to say? Love John Melanchamp. Love his music. Love the spotlight that he has put on southern Indiana. Love it. I went to high school in southern Indiana. He went to high school in southern Indiana. Our high schools belong to the same conference. We missed each other in high school. He’s much older than I am. But you know what? And that’s fine. Great musical legacy, but like your political leanings and and your uh your thoughts about what who’s your hospitality is. Sh. This is Inside Indiana Sports now with Kent Sterling for Thursday, May 29th, 2025. Brought to you by the great people at today’s dentistry, Dr. Mike O’Neal, the best. So go to the best dentist or don’t go to the best dentist. I’m going to go to a substandard dentist’s office. All right, you want to do that? Have at it. Have a great time at a substandard dentist office. Or you can have a great time go to the best dentist office. It’s your choice. 3178492933 is the number. Ask for Julie. Tell her that Kent told you to call. Make sure and subscribe. It doesn’t cost you a dime. You’re not going to get an email. It isn’t going to have any negative side effects whatsoever. This is not like Ozmpic. All right, we are not the Ozmpic of YouTube channels. It’s nothing but good here. By subscribing, you make yourself eligible to win a prize. And the prizes are great. Autographed jerseys, that kind of thing. We’re giving away a prize in honor of the Pacers being in the Eastern Conference Finals and hopefully going to the NBA Finals. Knockwood. I’m not trying to jinx nothing. Gotta get through this thing. got to win tonight or win Saturday or win Monday. You got to win one of those three games. When they do when this ends, you know what? We’re going to give away a prize in just a couple of days after that. And it’s going to be a great prize. I’ve told you. All right. So, subscribe, hit the like button because it’s the polite thing to do, not the New York thing to do. New York people, they don’t like videos. We in Indiana, we do because we’re polite. And if you want to make a donation, make a donation. No big, but include a comment or a question that elevate the level of discourse on the channel. All right, let’s talk about the Pacers. Uh, more Carl Anthony Towns, please. I’d like more of that, please. Carl Anthony Towns, the more he plays, the more his ability to play diminishes, especially in the fourth quarter. So, he ain’t going to be able to score in the fourth quarter if he plays a bunch of minutes. and he ain’t going to be able to keep the Pacers from scoring in the fourth quarter. And that’s where the game’s going to be won or lost tonight. So hopefully he plays a whole gob of minutes. We don’t want Carl Anthony Towns playing 25 minutes. We want him playing 40 minutes. We want him dragging ass in the fourth quarter. Mouth breathing like crazy is what we want. All right. In games in this series where uh Towns has played 33 minutes or more, the Knicks are 0 and2. They’ve only won one game in the series, so that’s not surprising. Uh he does not play well when tired. All right. And by the way, the Pacers have won every game. Brunson has scored 30 or more and played more than 31 minutes. Now again, it’s four game series and you can kind of you can make stats dance for you if you want. And I’m kind of making the the stats dance for me here. I think that Tibido is going to shrink up the bench. He’s going to play guys extended minutes. He he’s not going to use his bench as he has the last couple of games. Carile, conversely, I think he’s going to do what he’s been doing because he’s a really smart guy and you don’t mess with what’s working. First rule of leadership, don’t mess with what works. Just leave it be. You got a division of your company making $2 million and it’s requiring none of your attention. Let it go. Take the 2 million and say, “Thanks very much.” With the Pacers doing what they’re doing, get kind of restricting minutes a little bit, utilizing the living hell out of the bench. Let that continue. Spirit Walk says, “All musicians, please close your pie holes. Go Pacers.” You know, people can’t help it. You got sports people who want to talk about uh religion and society. You got musicians who want to do it. Everybody wants to do it, right? Hell, you’ve got po political people who want to play sports and play music. I I don’t know. Everybody wants to do something other than what they’re good at. I don’t understand it either, Spirit Walk. Um, how about we might not be talking enough about Benedict Matan and his effect on game uh four in this series. He had 20 points in 12 minutes. That’s substantial. 11 free throws in those 12 minutes. That doesn’t happen. I thought, man, that’s like Vinnie Johnson. Vinnie Johnson the microwave, right? Because instant offense. Vinnie Johnson never did that. like Benedict Mathan. I haven’t gone back and looked, but has anybody ever in an NBA uh conference finals game scored 20 or more in 12 or fewer? I don’t remember it ever happening. Maybe it did. And and I’m forgetting it. I’m blanking it. I don’t know. Usually, if you got a guy who’s going to score 20 and 12, he scores 40 and 24, right? Or 60 and 36. you don’t pull his ass out of the game while he’s on a heater like that. The Pacers did and good for them that you know that sometimes less is more with Benedict Matine. I think in the finals he’s going to have to step up a little bit more if the Pacers make the finals, but in this game tonight, I’m really happy with him playing a terrific 12 minutes and being that offensive spark in the second unit that they can rely on. Somebody gets in foul trouble, somebody rolls an ankle, he comes into the game and as long as he’s calm and confident, you got a chance to do some things. My pick to click tonight is Miles Turner. I think Miles Turner, especially early, is going to be good. Look, in the series against the Bucks, he was nine of 18 shooting threes. In the series against the Cavs, he was nine of 16. That’s better than 50% math majors. In this series, he is five of 19. He has got to shoot a little bit better. Water finds its level, right? He’s got to find his level and and that level is better than it’s been the last four games. I think Miles Turner has himself a night and I would really like to see uh Andrew Nebard have himself a night, too. He’s due. He played his ass off, I thought, against the Bucks and the Cavs. And in this series, it kind of started good, but it’s diminished with every game. He’s got to play better tonight. Somebody’s got to step up. Somebody’s got to lead the way and get this thing done. You had Hallebertton in game four. You had Neith in game one. You know, you got to have somebody step up tonight and get things done at a high level. I pounded in down low and I see what I can get done with Miles Turner against Carl Anthony Towns. I don’t want him in foul trouble, though. I want Carl Anthony Towns to play passive defense early. run his ass off over the course of 30 minutes prior to the fourth quarter and then just be dog tired when we get to the fourth. Can we do that? Can we do that, Tom Tibido? Can you cooperate with us just a little bit? Um, how about Jim Ers? You know, his obituary today was released and and what it had to say about him. Man, that’s a hell of a life that he lived. Really interesting life. Grew up in Lincolnwood, Illinois for goodness sake. uh just three streets away from the great Paulolly Bolst. Who knew? And and really became a a musician and and his greatest musical triumph was playing at Farmade with his band and his band superior musicians. He came out I was there. He came out and sang Lawyers, Guns and Money, the Warren Zeon standard, and he was awesome and the band was awesome and it was a highlight of a a day filled with really good musical highlights. anyway, uh, a philanthropist, a really good owner, a generous owner, benevolent owner, and and somebody that the players, especially of that group in the 2000s, really really grew to love and appreciate. And now his three daughters own the franchise. And Carly Ers Gordon is going to run things. And I got questions for her. And here they are. Will she spend to win? Will she authorize spending to win? Will she be the sole decision maker toward that end or is there kind of a council here where where you’re talking to all of the ERS sisters uh about well should we spend to resign Quiddyp pay? Are they going to have that kind of granular conversation or are they going to hire a general manager say here are kind of the the boundaries where you can spend and you can live. you decide what to do. Are they going to be activists? You know what I mean? Um, will the Colts extend their lease? That’s a huge question because the Colts have an exit from the lease that can be exercised beginning in 2032 that would signal their intent to leave in 2034 or after the 2034 season. That’s coming up. You got to get going on this. the city and the state have got to get going on this thing. Uh will they sell the franchise? Because if it’s worth four or five billion dollars, that’s about 1.6 billion per sister. That is a lot of cash. That’s generational cash for three sisters who are all a part of the same generation. And there’s money out there. People will buy it. People will pay that amount of money. Uh how about this? Will there be greater clarity? Like over the last couple of years specifically, it’s been really hard to tell who’s in charge, which means either that Carly has been in charge and remained quiet about it or Jim has been in charge and remained quiet about it. But that seems unlikely. Um, so I don’t mind the direction that ownership has headed. Uh, but what I would like maybe a little bit of a shorter fuse, maybe less patience when faced with year after year after year of mediocrity. We’ll see how good they are this year. I think this is watershed year and then you got decisions to make. Um, let’s talk for a moment about inviting Paul George back to Gamebridge Fieldhouse as part of a celebration of what could be an NBA Finals here in Indiana for the first time in 25 years. I’m way against it. Like Germaine O’Neal didn’t want to be traded. So Germaine O’Neal coming back as an ex-pacer, you know, George Hill I I think would have liked to have stayed here. A lot of guys want to be here, right? Have wanted to be here. And then now they’re retired. Paul George is still playing. He lied to the team. He lied to the fans. Then he crapped on the team and he crapped on the fans once he was out the door. Why would you invite him back? Why Why would you celebrate his legacy? He talks about being able to come back and having a video tribute. Is he out of his mind? How obtuse is Paul George? That’s a great question. I don’t even know if Paul George could understand or or could answer the question of how obtuse he is given the fact that he believes that he’s worthy of some kind of video tribute. Are you out of your mind? What’s the matter with you? Like that to uh a little bit of self-awareness goes a long way. Hall. Uh, March Madness expanding to 72 or 76. No, contract. Let’s shrink this thing down. Let’s make every game really, really good. Do we really need Monmouth taking on Duke? It’s kind of fun because every once in a while somebody beats Duke or somebody beats I don’t mean to bring up a sore spot with the Purdue Boiler Makers, but every once in a while as a one seed, Purdue gets beat in the first round. That’s kind of fun to watch for people outside the state, people other than me. Although, yeah, come on. Everybody enjoyed that, didn’t they? Even Purdue fans had to say, “You know what? Good for them. I doubt it. But expanding has been stupid. The playing games in Dayton are dumb. They don’t belong in the tournament. They’re not any fun. Nobody watches the damn things. Or if they do, they only watch because there’s nothing else on. We don’t need more bad basketball games leading into the world’s greatest sporting event. We just don’t. So, let’s not do that. Let’s not chase shiny coins all over the world anymore. Let’s say, you know what, enough’s enough. And can’t we do that? Can’t enough be enough at some point for God’s sake? Uh, absolutely ridiculous. Charlie Baker, for God’s sake, be a common sense steward of that event and of the NCAA, you know, in whatever way you wish. All right? But be a good steward. I don’t know what power the NCAA has anymore. They do have the power though to expand that tournament or contract it. Take it back to 64 and and let’s exclude the mediocres. Can we do that? Conference champions and then any team ranked in the top 30 outside of those. Let’s have that many. We don’t even have a set number. It’s just the number of teams that belong in the tournament. You have earned a place in the tournament. You can come. You have not earned a place in the tournament. You cannot come. How about that? That’d be all right. Tonight, over under. Over. I’m taking the Pacers. I’m taking the over. The overunder is what? 223 and a half. Give me the over. Give me the Pacers. If you believe the Knicks are going to win, take the under. It’s just that simple. Pacers win, over hits. Pacers lose, under hits. There you go. Uh, yeah. And, and George Hill, the hometown hero, you know, Germaine O’Neal was all right. I don’t think Germaine O’Neal ever kind of embraced the community or anything like that in the way that George Hill did because George Hill was here, grew up here, went to Broadripple, then Uppy. Love George Hill. Great guy. Ask George Hill a really good question, you get a great answer. My son used to work out with him and uh first two times they went at each other one-on-one. It was uh Ryan, George Hill, Jeff Teague, and they’re kind of defending each other, right? It they’re rotating. And so TW Ryan’s left-handed. First two times, Ryan took George Hill. And then George Hill, like I think he even said, “You’re left-handed.” And that was the end of it for Ryan. Ryan did not get to the tin anymore against George Hill. And so Ryan saw him a couple years ago at Cambridge Fieldhouse said, ‘Hey George, how you doing? And George Hill goes, “Lefty.” That’s George Hill. We love George Hill. Great guy. Bring him back all day. Rick Smiths, bring him back. The Davis’s bring him back. Derek McKe, bring him back. All those guys. Mully, you can bring Mully back. Sam Perkins, love Sam Perkins. Had a little bit of trouble when he was in the front office of the Pacers. I would still welcome him back before I’d welcome Paul Church back. We’ll talk to you immediately after the game. I think it’s going to be a Pacers win. I don’t think they’re gonna romp. I think they’re going to win by seven. It’s going to be a game a lot like the game Tuesday night and and we’re going to see Austin Crocher. Love Austin Crocher. Absolutely. Bring him back. Yes. Yes. Yes. Although he does he does have some of Herb Simon’s money that I’m not I’m not sure was earned on the up and up. Got to tell you the truth. But we’ll talk to you tonight. Can’t wait. Let’s go. 8:00. Can’t get here quick enough, can it?