Hello Again...

Speaking of people I miss, someone else who I miss will be playing in Conseco Fieldhouse tonight, and he'll be wearing the black of the Miami Heat. Sure he's a shell of his former self, but Jermaine O'neal put 8 years into the Pacers organization, and most of those were his best years. He tailed off rather unattractively, with repeated injuries and lackluster performances during his final years as a Pacer before asking to be traded, but when he was The Man in Indiana, it always seemed like he carried the weight of the entire team on his shoulders. That weight was placed on him by Reggie Miller himself, and for a while, Jermaine carried it without faltering.

Here’s the only Jermaine O’neal story I have:

The first time I saw the Pacers play live, it was at Staples against the Lakers during Reggie's last season (04-05). Jermaine was injured at the time so unfortunately he wasn’t playing. I went with one of my best friends, a Lakers fan, who had given me a Reggie Miller rookie card as a birthday gift. Anxious to see Reggie play in person for the first and probably last time, I brought the rookie card and a sharpie to the game, hoping that I could camp the player’s exit and get an autograph from the best 3pt shooter in the game before he was lost to retirement.

I remember holding my breath every time Reggie launched a three. His shot looked so damn majestic, this high-arcing prayer that I was convinced would splash through every time. Unfortunately this time the splashes never happened. It was brick city for Reggie that night, and he ended the game with something like 15 points, most of them free throws. My Pacers lost to Kobe 103-94. They could’ve used another scoring option in Jermaine, and the Pacers certainly missed his interior defensive presence that night.

Needless to say, it was a disappointing game, and the only thing that could save my night was an autograph.

When it was over my friend and I rushed to the players exit ramp on the other side of Staples, which was curiously devoid of people. We waited there patiently, wondering who would come out, when we saw the Pacers bus pull up underneath Staples at the bottom of the exit ramp. We were at an angle so that we couldn’t see who was getting on, but we could see the outlines of people filing into the bus through the heavy tint. I could see my hopes of grabbing a Reggie Miller autograph fading. He had to have boarded the bus already, and there was no way the bus would stop on its way out of Staples.

That’s when I saw the injured Jermaine O’Neal.

Surrounded by an intimidating entourage of decidedly non-NBA players, he exited the locker room and made his way past the bus, straight towards the exit ramp. On his way he was stopped by then-Laker-former-Blazer teammate Brian Grant, and they exchanged friendly words. They talked briefly then parted ways, and suddenly Jermaine and his gaggle of friends were walking straight up the ramp on a direct line to where my friend and I were standing.

We looked at each other. What the heck should I do? What should I say? He shrugged his shoulders and nodded towards Jermaine, who was now within earshot.

Without really thinking I stepped forward.

“Mr. Oneal?”

They stopped talking and all of their eyes snapped towards me.

Holy shit he’s tall. 6’ 11” is not at all like the TV advertises.

Again without thinking: “Can you sign this please?”

Wait. Sign what?! I look down and I’m holding out the sharpie and my Reggie Miller rookie card.

Without saying anything Jermaine looks down at me (and I emphasize down - I'm 5' 9"), takes the card and the sharpie, scribbles a giant and illegible signature on the back of the card, hands it back to me, and follows his entourage into an SUV parked at the top of the exit ramp. The SUV pulls out and drives away. The Pacers bus follows shortly thereafter.

I’m left standing there with a Reggie Miller rookie card signed by someone who is now a Miami Heat Center.

Hey, at least I got an autograph. My night was saved. I think.

To this day I wonder if Jermaine realized it wasn’t his stats that he signed over. I wonder if he thought I was a moron for making him sign something that wasn’t his. I wonder if he didn’t even notice or care. I wonder how much a Jermaine O’Neal signature depreciates the value of a Reggie Miller rookie card. I wonder if anyone would believe me if I lie and say Reggie himself signed it.

Either way, I wish Jermaine luck tonight because he definitely needs it these days. He’s 0-3 when on the visiting team in Conseco, averaging just 2.7 pts in those 3 outings. The Heat are also under pressure from Philly for the 5th seed in the East so they probably need this game as much as the Pacers need it to keep their dwindling playoff hopes alive.

Whatever happens, I’ll always remember that Jermaine O’Neal was there in the formative years of my Pacer fandom. Thanks for those years, Jermaine. And thanks for defacing one of the few pieces of sports memorabilia that I have, you tall, tall man.