Editing Indiana Pacers (section)

====1997–2000: Larry Bird era====
In the [[1997–98 NBA season]], Indiana native and former [[Boston Celtics]] great [[Larry Bird]] was hired as head coach. He led the Pacers to a 19-game improvement over the previous season, finishing 58–24 at the time, the most the franchise had ever won as an NBA team, and tying the 1970–71 ABA Pacers for the franchise record.

=====Back–to–back Eastern Conference Finals appearances=====
[[Chris Mullin (basketball)|Chris Mullin]] joined the team in the off-season and immediately became a valuable part of the Pacers lineup—and starting small forward. Assistant coaches [[Rick Carlisle]], in charge of the offense, and [[Dick Harter]], who coached the defense, were key in getting the most out of the Pacers' role players such as [[Dale Davis (basketball)|Dale Davis]], [[Derrick McKey]], and a young [[Antonio Davis]]. Miller and [[Rik Smits]] both made the All-Star team that year, and [[1998 NBA playoffs|in the playoffs]], the Pacers breezed past the [[1997–98 Cleveland Cavaliers season|Cleveland Cavaliers]] and [[1997–98 New York Knicks season|New York Knicks]] before falling to the [[1997–98 Chicago Bulls season|Chicago Bulls]] in a seven-game [[1998 NBA playoffs|Eastern Conference Finals]].

In the [[1998–99 NBA lockout|lockout-shortened]] [[1998–99 NBA season|1998–99 season]], the [[1998–99 Indiana Pacers season|Pacers]] won the Central Division with a 33–17 record and swept the [[Milwaukee Bucks]] and [[Philadelphia 76ers]] before falling to the Knicks in a six-game [[1999 NBA playoffs|Eastern Conference Finals]].

=====2000 NBA Finals appearance=====
Prior to the [[1999–2000 NBA season]], the [[1999–2000 Indiana Pacers season|Pacers]] traded forward [[Antonio Davis]] to the [[Toronto Raptors]] in exchange for first-round draft choice [[Jonathan Bender]]. In the [[2000 NBA playoffs]], after a 56–26 regular season, the Pacers survived the upset-minded [[Milwaukee Bucks]] in round one, handled the [[Philadelphia 76ers]] in the second round and finally broke through to the [[2000 NBA Finals|NBA Finals]] by virtue of a six-game East Finals victory over the [[1999–2000 New York Knicks season|New&nbsp;York Knicks]]. Their first NBA Finals appearance was against the [[1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season|Los Angeles Lakers]], who ended Indiana's championship hopes in six games. However, the Pacers dealt Los Angeles their worst playoff defeat up to that time by a margin of 33&nbsp;points in game five.<ref>{{cite web|title=2000 NBA Finals Composite Box Score|url=https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/NBA_2000_finals.html}}</ref>