TERRE HAUTE — “Sports do not build character, they reveal it.” — The great John Wooden, former UCLA and Indiana State basketball coach.

Larry Bird, as we all know a man of high-caliber character, said in 2005 that it would take the Indiana Pacers a year or more to overcome that night in Detroit.

He probably wishes he wasn’t so right about that.

Bird’s not-so-simple job, now two seasons after the season ruined by the basket-brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills, was to re-tool a roster that is trying to overcome the Ron Artest situation.

Following up an injury-plagued 2005-06 season, these new athletic, up-tempo Pacers aren’t an NBA Finals caliber team. Unwatchable, some say after a glimpse of the preseason.

But not unlike Bird, Indiana basketball fans expect nothing less than a quality team that can contend for a championship.

While the Pacers are trying to spin the expectations to a calmer level this year, the expectations of the paying customers hasn’t changed.

According to 4,566 Pacers’ fans who voted in a poll on Pacers.com, 33 percent of fans expect 45-49 wins; 28 percent expect 50-54 wins; and 23 percent expect 55 or more wins. So one in five fans anticipate the Pacers going from a .500 season back to approaching the 61-win season of 2004-05. Bartender, pour those fans a drink.

If healthy, the Pacers have talent rivaling any team in a once again improved Eastern Conference, but they don’t have players with a championship temperament (see Duncan, Tim; Wade, Dwayne; O’Neal, Shaquille; Hamilton, Richard).

Some of the coverage of the Pacers has included mentions of the 2007 NBA lottery. The Pacers scratched and clawed to make the playoffs last year with their starting point guard Jamaal Tinsley actually starting 27 games and Jermaine O’Neal starting 47 of the 82-game slate. So forget about the lottery if those two are healthy.

But the million-dollar question is whether or not this core of Pacers’ players will ever play on the biggest stage.

To me, the incessant complaining to officials that “JO” has done throughout his career reveals a certain character; it’s as if he thinks he’s entitled to get calls because he is a so-called superstar.

Both O’Neal and his newly acquired former teammate Al Harrington got in early foul trouble in Wednesday’s opener at Charlotte. Both showed some frustration but not that led to technical fouls or the team getting out of sync.

As the biggest talents and perhaps biggest personalities, the 10-year league veteran O’Neal and 8-year veteran Harrington are the leaders of the Indiana Pacers.

Stephen Jackson can be a follower on a championship team. He proved it under a Tim Duncan led squad in San Antonio. The question of shot selection which is often raised is moot as long as Jackson isn’t asked to be the go-to guy like he was part of last season.

Jackson can share the basketball in an up-tempo attack. He and Sarunas Jasikevicious are the Pacers’ only real long-range threats, although Jackson is a streaky shooter. The Pacers as a whole need to stop shooting so many 3-pointers. They don’t have one player that shot better than 40 percent last year. The Pacers, who shot 26 treys and made seven in Friday’s home-opening loss to the Hornets. They need to get to the basket and in effect they’ll get to the free-throw line more.

Physically, O’Neal is as gifted as Duncan. But can he lead like Duncan? He can’t do it just like Duncan. He has to do it his own way. But this team’s leadership starts with the big man.

Maybe developing leadership skills is one more good argument for the college experience. Kudos to David Stern on the rule change and also for an emphases on officials making traveling calls, quicker whistles for technical fouls on complaining and for the hand-check rules that should make for much more entertaining basketball.

But perhaps O’Neal’s old buddy Harrington — also a straight-out-of high school player — picked up a few things during a stint in Atlanta that can help O’Neal and the Pacers. Harrington showed he can produce to the tune of 18 points and seven rebounds a game, but the Pacers need a professional presence as much as his statistics.

Other than leadership from those two players, the key to the season is Tinsley’s ability to be on the floor and set the pace on offense and defense. Since a solid rookie year in 2001-02, Tinsley’s number of games played has gone from 80 to 73 to 52 to 40 to 42.

Defensively, his backup Jasikevicious sets the Pacers back, but he can keep an offense vital with sharp passing and shooting. Having Darrell Armstrong and Orien Greene to eat up some minutes could play a part in keeping Tinsley healthy over the 82-game haul. But the point guard’s health probably has more to do with how hard he works and some luck.

And the x-factor is Marquis Daniels. It will take this explosive slasher some time to learn his teammates, but he is a scorer that can also create shots for his teammates. The need for Daniels’ emergence will be pressed if Jackson faces jail time for a probation violation stemming from the strip club incident.

People are overestimating how much effect that incident will have. To elaborate on coach Wooden’s quote that sports reveal character. Any adversity reveals character. I’d expect Jackson and the rest of these Pacers to play like men with much to prove.



Craig Pearson can be reached by e-mail at craig.pearson@tribstar.com or by phone after 4 p.m. at (812) 231-4357.