Faith and Family / Sean Gallagher

Pass on stories of faith—and basketball—to the next generation

I was a young adult on my own 30 years ago when the Indiana Pacers had legendary playoff games against the New York Knicks. In many of them, Reggie Miller made unbelievable late-game shots to lead the Blue and Gold to amazing comeback wins in New York’s Madison Square Garden (MSG).

Those memories remain today like they happened yesterday. Oh, wait a second, they did happen yesterday as I write this column on May 22. Or something very much like them did. Or maybe even greater.

In game 1 of this year’s NBA Eastern Conference Finals on May 21, the Pacers were down 9 points with less than a minute to go against the Knicks in MSG.

After other late-game heroics, Tyrese Haliburton, this generation’s Reggie Miller, hit a two-point shot at the buzzer that hit the back of the rim, bounced high in the air and then came down through the net to tie the game and take it into overtime.

From there, with more amazing plays, the Pacers ultimately pulled out a 138-135 victory over the Knicks. Ordinarily, I’d say it was an improbable win. But in the Pacers’ two earlier playoff series in this postseason, they’ve had two other crazy comeback wins in which they had been down 7 with less than 50 seconds to go. The improbable is becoming probable with the Blue and Gold.

These Pacers playoff wins have been neat for me to experience given my memories of their similar incredible performances from 30 years ago.

But what makes them so much more special is that I’m sharing them with my 18-year-old son Victor. Basketball has brought us together through the years. I helped coach him in Catholic Youth Organization basketball from when he was 10 and in the fourth grade. Now, he’s graduating from high school.

Along the way, he and I have followed the Pacers and gone to some of their games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, including a playoff game against the Milwaukee Bucks earlier this postseason.

In our mutual love for basketball and for the Pacers, it’s been special for me to share with Victor the stories of the Blue and Gold’s great playoff wins from the 1990s against the Knicks.

Now we’re making new memories together that resonate so well with ones I made by myself when I was on my own as a young adult 30 years ago.

All of this reminds me of a passage from Psalm 78 that touches on something that is at the heart of our faith and the way it’s lived out and passed on in families: “The things we have heard and understood, the things our fathers have told us, these we will not hide from our children, but will tell them to the next generation” (Ps 78:3-4).

As much as I love following the Pacers and making memories of them with Victor, my wife Cindy and I take much more seriously telling Victor and his four brothers “the glories of the Lord and his might and the marvelous things he has done” in the death and resurrection of Christ (Ps 78:4).

With the help of God’s grace, we also joyfully seek to help them see how the great stories of the Lord are unfolding in their own lives here and now through the power of the Holy Spirit given to them in baptism.

Pacers games, like other sports, attract people because they’re dramatic. But there’s no greater drama than the timeless love and mercy of Christ playing out in our families each day. †