they traded our test for Sieryakovich.

We could maybe potentially talk about like what would have happened.

The malice at the palace has triggered an alternate timeline.

For us to walk through that door, let's first head to Auburn Hills, Michigan in November 2004.

This is Remember That Game, the podcast about sporting events that take you on a journey

and maybe chart the path of the zeitgeist.

I'm your host Thomas Emmerich, and my guest is Jeremiah Sengelman, who worked for the Dallas

Mavericks and Phoenix Sun's front offices,

created ESPN's real plus-minus metric, and does great work on substack,

Nate Silver's Silver Bulletin and Royce Webb's 5-5.

Pacers Pistons regular season contest reshaped the NBA in many ways.

We'll focus here on playing out the balance of power if malice didn't happen.

Jeremiah's, are you ready to pilot the Indiana Pacers franchise through its

mulligan on the decade?

Yes, I'm ready, unfortunately. We'll go chronologically through the buildup, the decade. Yes, I'm ready, unfortunately.

We'll go chronologically through the buildup, the game, the riot, and the aftermath,

and from these moments jump to the alternate timeline, the what-if 2000s of Pacers

basketball, where a cup of Diet Coke doesn't land a direct hit on the game's high score,

where on our test in that Pacers uniform, I think you said, yeah, the white Pacers uniform,

maybe he's wearing that late into May and June guarding the league's most prolific

scores through the remainder of the decade. So the pattern is start with the year 2004

in our timeline and then slingshot from key moments to the what if timeline. Kind of like the

...