Game 3 vs Knicks declared a Pacers Gold Out — with Boom Baby! t-shirts

All fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse for Friday's playoff game against the New York Knicks will receive a gold t-shirt with Boom Baby! on the front.

The Indiana Pacers continue to lean into the gold swagger.

They’re staying with the gold theme throughout the 2024 NBA Playoffs. That includes the team wearing their yellow Statement Edition uniforms in each playoff game.

(The Knicks will be in white on Friday.)

Ahead of Game 3 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the team announced that it will be another gold out — with all fans receiving this Boom Baby! t-shirt.

Click here for tickets, which are still available starting at $90 (plus fees) per ticket.

The team has a pending trademark on the phrase “Boom Baby!”, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The application was filed on April 5, 2022 — which was at the end of the regular season two years ago. And one year after Slick Leonard passed away.

A reminder of the origin of Boom, Baby! — from Slick himself:

“We were in the seventh game (of the division finals in 1975). Larry Brown was coaching the Denver Nuggets and we were in the seventh game out in Denver. It went down to the wire and they had a two-point lead on us. We had the ball out of bounds. That’s when I had (George) McGinnis and we setup a play to go directly from half-court to George.

“Seven seconds left on the clock. We got the ball into George, and when we did, all five Denver guys surrounded him and George jumped up in the air, twisted and he hit Billy Keller over in the far corner. When Billy released the ball, the gun went (off). When it hit through there, I said, ‘Boom,’ then I added, ‘Baby!’ That’s the first time I ever said it. After that, I didn’t ever say it until it got started with Reggie (Miller). We won the series against Denver and they had had a big year because they had an outstanding club.”

Slick even wrote a book with that title in 2013. “I’m not getting any younger, so I wanted to do something kind of like a legacy for my kids and my grandkids,” he told me when it published. “There are stories all along the way,” he said. “A lot of pictures were submitted and really I wanted more pictures in the book than there actually is.”

The Pacers are undefeated at home during the 2024 postseason (3-0) and have won eight straight games at The Fieldhouse. Their last home loss was to the Cleveland Cavliers on March 18.

And they are 29-15 in home games this season.

They’re down 0-2 in this best-of-seven second-round series with the Knicks.