OKLAHOMA CITY — Stephen Foster’s loyalty to the Indiana Pacers runs deep. He moved to Indianapolis in 1983, and has been a Pacers fan ever since.
With vivid memories of watching Reggie Miller and the Pacers' storied teams of the 1990s, Foster admired Miller's tenacity.
"He [Miller] was smart. He worked hard and had the heart of a lion. He didn’t back down from Jordan or anyone else," Foster recalled.
Now, Foster is in Oklahoma City to cheer on the Pacers in the NBA Finals.
Sporting his Pacers T-shirt, he felt the intensity of the moment as he approached a group of Thunder fans at breakfast, nervously asking, "Am I safe?"
Foster's journey to the Finals was serendipitous. He won two tickets, airfare and a hotel stay through a Sirius XM trivia contest on NBA.com.
"I got here by winning," he said. "They ask us trivia questions, and it's like a three-day process. I was the first to answer the first question on a Tuesday, and then I faced off against another guy on Thursday."
Ultimately, Foster emerged victorious, noting that a question about the Pacers tipped the scales in his favor.
The winning question and answer:
The Pacers have never won an NBA Championship. They’ve only been to the finals once, but when they were in the ABA, they were in the ABA finals five times, so they asked who was the coach during that Pacers run?
Bob Slick Leonard.
Now, he has the chance to witness the blue and gold chase history firsthand.
"They never say die; you’ve got to beat them for 48 minutes," he said, ready to create lasting memories in the Finals.
Game 2 tips off at 8 p.m. on Sunday, June 8.
