title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: The group travels to Omnipotent City to warn the other gods and ask for their help. The Olympian god Zeus is unwilling to help and has Thor captured, forcing the group to fight off Zeus's men. Zeus injures Korg; in anger, Thor impales Zeus with his own thunderbolt, which Valkyrie steals during their escape. They then travel to the Shadow Realm to save the children. However, this turned out to be a ruse for Gorr to take Stormbreaker, which he intends to use on the Bifrost to enter Eternity and ask for the destruction of all gods. Gorr manages to overpower Thor's group and successfully steal Stormbreaker. Gorr uses Stormbreaker to open the portal to Eternity. Valkyrie is badly injured and Foster ends the battle drained by her use of Mjolnir, which has exacerbated her cancer. Thor goes alone, using Zeus's thunderbolt to imbue the kidnapped Asgardian children with his power to fight alongside him. Foster arrives and joins Thor in fighting Gorr and destroys the Necrosword.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Admitting defeat, Thor manages to convince Gorr that all he wanted from Eternity was not to destroy the gods but to get his daughter back. Foster succumbs to her illness and dies in Thor's arms. Eternity allows Gorr's request to revive Love, and he asks Thor to take care of before he dies. The children return to New Asgard, where Valkyrie and Sif begin training them. Meanwhile, Thor, now once again in possession of Mjolnir, continues to go on adventures to help people, with Love, now wielding Stormbreaker, by his side.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: In an alternate 2012, Thor and the Avengers are victorious over Loki during the Battle of New York. However, when the time travelling Tony Stark and Scott Lang from 2023 arrive to steal the Tesseract, they alter 2012-Thor's history when they cause 2012-Stark to have a cardiac dysrhythmia. 2012-Thor uses Mjolnir to save 2012-Stark's life, but the incident inadvertently causes Loki to gain access to the Tesseract which he uses to escape by teleporting away, leaving 2012-Thor with concern and confusion.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: In an alternate reality, Thor (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) is turned into a frog and is later sent to the Void by the Time Variance Authority (TVA). This version is dubbed "Throg".


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Several alternate versions of Thor appear in the animated series "What If...?", with Hemsworth reprising his role.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: In an alternate 2011, while seeking Mjolnir at a S.H.I.E.L.D. base following his banishment from Asgard, Thor is seemingly shot dead by Clint Barton by accident, though it is later revealed that his death was orchestrated by a vengeful Hank Pym in his Yellowjacket alias.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: In another alternate 2011, Thor is raised as an only child due to Odin giving an infant Loki back to Laufey and grows up to be a boisterous prince who prefers spending his time partying. While Odin falls into the Odinsleep and Frigga visits her sisters, Thor hosts a large intergalactic party on Earth in Las Vegas, with attendees including a version of Loki who is a Prince of the Frost Giants and good friends with Thor, the Sovereign, the Ravagers, Surtur, Korg, Nebula, Drax, the Grandmaster, and Howard the Duck. In response, S.H.I.E.L.D. Acting Director Maria Hill summons Danvers for assistance, but Thor refuses to leave and the two engage in a battle. Thor subdues Danvers and continues partying with his fellow alien partygoers, destroying human relics and locations such as Stonehenge and the Statue of Liberty. Thor also meets Foster and establishes a romantic relationship with her. While he is partying, she contacts Frigga to discipline Thor before he kills danvers and does more damage. Thor is alerted to Frigga's impending arrival and intimidates his partygoers to clean up the damage they caused when he mentions that Frigga is coming. They succeed in undoing the damages. Frigga arrives to find him studying with his fellow Asgardians and the Midgardians. When he calls forth Mjolnir, he finds it defaced as Frigga shakes her head. Afterward, Thor visits Foster at her van and invites her on a date, only to be interrupted by an Ultron from another universe wielding the Infinity Stones.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: As he then fights off the Ultron Sentries, he is recruited by the Watcher into the Guardians of the Multiverse to defeat Ultron. While in another universe, Thor accidentally alerts Ultron to their presence prematurely, and are transported to Ultron's home universe following a brief battle. Joined by Natasha Romanoff, the team fights Ultron and manage to defeat him, and Thor returns to his home reality and reunites with Foster.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: In an alternate 2015, Thor, along with Stark, Rogers, and Banner, are killed by Ultron who had successfully uploaded his consciousness into a new Vibranium body.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: A major divergence from the comic books is the absence of Thor's comic book alter ego, Donald Blake, although he uses the name 'Donald Blake' as a pseudonym during his time on Earth in "Thor", an Easter egg homage to the comics. In the comics, as in the MCU, Odin stripped Thor of his powers and sent him to Earth as punishment for Thor's arrogance and intemperance. However, in the comics, Odin puts Thor into the body of Donald Blake, a crippled human doctor, for the course of a long-running storyline, encompassing years of adventures during which Thor's alter ego is occasionally able to cause Thor to re-emerge to fight villainy. In the MCU, with no element of an alter ego, this banishment is resolved within the first film, over the course of days. The lack of an alter ego also impacts Thor's relationships. In the comics, Thor's love interest, Jane Foster, is an assistant to Donald Blake. In the films, she has no prior connection to the character, and meets him due to her work as a physicist studying the type of phenomena his appearances generate.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Another significant difference from the comic books is the destruction of Thor's hammer, Mjölnir, in the MCU and the origin of its replacement, Stormbreaker. In the comics, Stormbreaker is created by the dwarf Eitri by Odin's decree, to be given to the character Beta Ray Bill, after Bill fights Thor in hand-to-hand combat to determine who should possess Mjölnir. In the MCU, Thor himself assists Eitri in creating Stormbreaker as a replacement for the destroyed Mjölnir, to use as a weapon with which to face Thanos, though he does later retrieve Mjölnir for a brief period while travelling through time.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: At the end of "Avengers: Endgame", Thor joins the Guardians of the Galaxy, also a different course from anything that occurs in the comic books.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: While Hemsworth's portrayal of the character has received praise, Thor, as a character, was initially less well-received than other Avengers characters, and it has been stated that "before "Ragnarok", Thor was described by some as an ill-defined if likable meathead of a character, used primarily for punching and occasionally fish-out-of-water jokes made at his expense", and that films featuring the character were "the studio's least fun franchise". In particular, "The Dark World" was criticized for adding "absolutely zero development or growth for its main character", resulting in "little enthusiasm for Thor from either audiences or Marvel". "Thor: Ragnarok", however, was much better received, to the extent that it has widely been described as saving the "Thor" franchise. In his review of "", Joe Morgenstern of "The Wall Street Journal" acknowledged "Chris Hemsworth's Thor, endearing despite some ragged material and the actor's seemingly limited dramatic range".


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Thor in "Infinity War" was widely praised, for its themes signifying his losses, his journey as a God and his sacrifice for the people of earth and Asgard. Mike Reyes of Cinema blend stated "The quest itself is Thor's way of trying to build himself back up after the most devastating losses, and Hemsworth is most certainly game for that. Watching him talk things out with Rocket Raccoon was a quiet moment that pays off in the best way possible when he ultimately forges and uses Stormbreaker. After losing everything, Thor is severely desperate to get back in the saddle and be a hero again, only this time it's not out of youthful impulse. Paying close attention to his conversation with Rocket, you can see a bit more of the age and wisdom in his person, particularly due to the fact that Chris Hemsworth seems to have adopted more of the tone and mannerisms of Anthony Hopkins' Odin. We've seen the son become the father, and now he is ready to become the hero he was always meant to be".


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Thor's characterization, themes and symbolism were praised by fans and critics alike, with many considering it to be best iteration of Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: The depiction of Thor as a depressed and obese alcoholic in "Avengers: Endgame", and the subsequent use of jokes directed at Thor by other characters due to this, led to accusations of fat shaming in various editorial commentary and fan reactions. Others indicated disapproval that Thor's emotional and physical state was played for laughs instead of being approached with more respect and understanding.


title: Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: On the other hand, the depiction also received critical acclaim for adding relatability and for the tackling of mental health issues, with Hemsworth himself having advocated against the initial plan for Thor to become muscular again halfway through the film. Joe Morgenstern of "The Wall Street Journal" praised Hemsworth in the Avengers franchise finale "as the graceful, exuberant comic actor he was destined to be, while Thor morphs, alarmingly and charmingly—yet still heroically—into a beer-bellied apparition who could pass for Jeff Lebowski."


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first established in 1967 as a member of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and became a member of the NBA in 1976 as a result of the ABA–NBA merger. They play their home games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The team is named after the state of Indiana's history with the Indianapolis 500's pace cars and with the harness racing industry.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers have won three championships, all in the ABA. The Pacers were NBA Eastern Conference champions in 2000. The team has won nine division titles. Six Hall of Fame players – Reggie Miller, Chris Mullin, Alex English, Mel Daniels, Roger Brown, and George McGinnis – played with the Pacers for multiple seasons.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: In early 1967, a group of six investors (attorney Richard Tinkham, John DeVoe, Chuck DeVoe, entrepreneur Lyn Treece, sports agent Chuck Barnes, and Indianapolis Star sports writer Bob Collins) pooled their resources to purchase a franchise in the proposed American Basketball Association.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: For their first seven years, they played in the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum. In 1974, they moved to the plush new Market Square Arena in downtown Indianapolis, where they played for 25 years.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Early in the Pacers' second season, former Indiana Hoosiers standout Bob "Slick" Leonard became the team's head coach, replacing Larry Staverman. Leonard quickly turned the Pacers into a juggernaut. His teams were buoyed by the great play of superstars such as Mel Daniels, George McGinnis, Bob Netolicky, Rick Mount, Freddie Lewis and Roger Brown. The Pacers were – and ended – as the most successful team in ABA history, winning three ABA Championships in four years. In all, they appeared in the ABA Finals five times in the league's nine-year history, which was an ABA record.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers were one of four ABA teams that joined the NBA in the ABA–NBA merger in 1976. For the 1976–77 season, the Pacers were joined in the merged league by the Denver Nuggets, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The league charged a $3.2 million entry fee for each former ABA team. Since the NBA would only agree to accept four ABA teams in the ABA–NBA merger, the Pacers and the three other surviving ABA teams also had to compensate the two remaining ABA franchises which were not a part of the merger, the Spirits of St. Louis and Kentucky Colonels. As a result of the merger, the four teams dealt with financial troubles. Additionally, the Pacers had some financial troubles, which dated back to their waning days in the ABA; they had begun selling off some of their star players in the last ABA season. The new NBA teams also were barred from sharing in national TV revenues for four years.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers finished their inaugural NBA season with a record of 36–46. Billy Knight and Don Buse represented Indiana in the NBA All-Star Game. However, this was one of the few bright spots of the Pacers' first 13 years in the NBA. During this time, they had only two non-losing seasons and only two playoff appearances.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: A lack of continuity became the norm for most of the next decade, as they traded away Knight and Buse before the 1977–78 season even started. They acquired Adrian Dantley in exchange for Knight, but Dantley (who was averaging nearly 27 points per game at the time) was traded in December, while the Pacers' second-leading scorer, John Williamson, was dealt in January.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The early Pacers came out on the short end of two of the most one-sided trades in NBA history. In 1980, they traded Alex English to the Nuggets to reacquire former ABA star George McGinnis. McGinnis was long past his prime and contributed very little during his two-year return. English, in contrast, went on to become one of the greatest scorers in NBA history. The next year, they traded a 1984 draft pick to the Portland Trail Blazers for center Tom Owens, who had played for the Pacers during their last ABA season. Owens played one year for the Pacers with little impact and was out of the league altogether a year later. In 1983–84, the Pacers finished with the worst record in the Eastern Conference, which would have given the Pacers the second overall pick in the draft—the pick that the Blazers used to select Sam Bowie while Michael Jordan was still available. As a result of the Owens trade, they were left as bystanders in the midst of one of the deepest drafts in NBA history—including such future stars as Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Sam Perkins, Charles Barkley, and John Stockton.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Clark Kellogg was drafted by the Pacers in the 1982 and finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting, but the Pacers finished the 1982–83 season with their all-time worst record of 20–62 and won only 26 games the following season. After winning 22 games in 1984–85 and 26 games in 1985–86, Jack Ramsay replaced George Irvine as coach and led the Pacers to a 41–41 record in 1986–87 and their second playoff appearance as an NBA team. Chuck Person, nicknamed "The Rifleman" for his renowned long-range shooting, led the team in scoring as a rookie and won NBA Rookie of the Year honors. Their first playoff win in NBA franchise history was earned in Game 3 of their first-round, best-of-five series against the Atlanta Hawks, but it was their only victory in that series, as the Hawks defeated them in four games.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Reggie Miller from UCLA was drafted by the Pacers in 1987, beginning his career as a backup to John Long. Many fans at the time disagreed with Miller's selection over Indiana Hoosiers' standout Steve Alford. The Pacers missed the playoffs in 1987–88, drafted Rik Smits in the 1988 NBA draft, and suffered through a disastrous 1988–89 season in which coach Jack Ramsay stepped down following an 0–7 start. Mel Daniels and George Irvine filled in on an interim basis before Dick Versace took over the 6–23 team on the way to a 28–54 finish. In February 1989, the team traded veteran center Herb Williams to the Dallas Mavericks for future NBA Sixth Man-of-the Year Detlef Schrempf.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: From 1989 to 1993, the Pacers would play at or near .500 and qualify for the playoffs; in 1989–90, the Pacers parlayed a fast start into the team's third playoff appearance under coach Bob Hill. But the Pacers were swept by the Detroit Pistons, who would go on to win their second consecutive NBA Championship. Reggie Miller became the first Pacer to play in the All-Star Game since 1976 on the strength of his 24.6 points-per-game average. Despite four straight first-round exits, this period was highlighted by a first-round series with the Boston Celtics in 1991 that went to Game 5. The next season, the Pacers returned to the playoffs in 1992 and met the Celtics for the second year in a row. But this time, the Celtics left no doubt who was the better team, as they swept the Pacers in three straight games. Chuck Person and point guard Micheal Williams were traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the off-season, and the Pacers got Pooh Richardson and Sam Mitchell in return. For the 1992–93 season, Detlef Schrempf moved from sixth man to the starter at small forward and was elected to his first All-Star game. Meanwhile, Miller became the Pacers' all-time NBA era leading scorer during this season (4th overall). The Pacers returned to the playoffs with a 41–41 record, but lost to the New York Knicks in the first round, three games to one.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Larry Brown was brought aboard as Pacers' coach for the 1993–94 season, and Pacers' general manager Donnie Walsh completed a then highly criticized trade as he sent Schrempf to the Seattle SuperSonics in exchange for Derrick McKey and little known Gerald Paddio. But the Pacers won their last eight games of the season to finish with an NBA-era franchise-high 47 wins. They stormed past Shaquille O'Neal and the Orlando Magic in a first-round sweep to earn their first NBA playoff series win, and pulled off an upset by defeating the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks in the Conference semifinals.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: With the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals tied going into Game 5 in New York, and the Pacers trailing the Knicks by 15 points early in the fourth quarter, Reggie Miller scored 25 points in that quarter, including five 3-point field goals. Miller also flashed the choke sign to the Knicks' number one fan, Spike Lee, while leading the Pacers to the come from behind victory. The Knicks ultimately came back to win the next two games and the series. Miller was a tri-captain and leading scorer of the USA Basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1994 FIBA World Championship.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Mark Jackson joined the team in an off-season trade with the Los Angeles Clippers, giving the team a steady hand at the point guard position that had been lacking in recent years. The Pacers enjoyed a 52–30 campaign in 1994–95, giving them their first Central Division title and first 50+ win season since the ABA days. The team swept the Hawks in the first round, before another meeting with the rival Knicks in the Conference semifinals. This time, with the Pacers down six points with 16.4 seconds remaining in Game 1, Miller scored eight points in 8.9 seconds to help secure a two-point victory. The Pacers beat the Knicks in seven games. They pushed the Magic to seven games before falling in the Eastern Conference Finals.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers duplicated their 52–30 record in 1995–96, but were hurt severely by an injury to Reggie Miller's eye socket in April, from which he was not able to return until Game 5 of their first-round series against the Hawks. Miller scored 29 points in that game, but the Hawks came away with a two-point victory to put an early end to Indiana's season. This 1995–96 team did manage to go down in history as the only team to defeat the Chicago Bulls twice that year, a Bulls team which made history with a then all-time best 72–10 record. The Pacers could not withstand several key injuries in 1996–97, nor could they handle the absence of Mark Jackson, who had been traded to the Denver Nuggets before the season (though they did re-acquire Jackson at the trading deadline). The Pacers finished 39–43 and missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years, after which coach Larry Brown stepped down.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: In the 1997–98 NBA season, Indiana native and former Boston Celtics great Larry Bird was hired as head coach. He led the Pacers to a 19-game improvement over the previous season, finishing 58–24 – at the time, the most the franchise had ever won as an NBA team, and tying the 1970–71 ABA Pacers for the franchise record. Chris Mullin joined the team in the off-season and immediately became a valuable part of the Pacers lineup—and starting small forward. Assistant coaches Rick Carlisle, in charge of the offense, and Dick Harter, who coached the defense, were key in getting the most out of the Pacers' role players such as Dale Davis, Derrick McKey and a young Antonio Davis. Miller and Rik Smits both made the All-Star team that year, and in the playoffs, the Pacers breezed past the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks before falling to the Chicago Bulls in a seven-game Eastern Conference Finals.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: In the lockout-shortened 1998–99 season, the Pacers won the Central Division with a 33–17 record and swept the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers before falling to the Knicks in a six-game Eastern Conference Finals.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Prior to the 1999–2000 NBA season, the Pacers traded forward Antonio Davis to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for first-round draft choice Jonathan Bender. In the 2000 NBA playoffs, after a 56–26 regular season, the Pacers survived the upset-minded Milwaukee Bucks in round one, handled the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round and finally broke through to the NBA Finals by virtue of a six-game East Finals victory over the New York Knicks. Their first NBA Finals appearance was against the Los Angeles Lakers, who ended Indiana's championship hopes in six games. However, the Pacers dealt Los Angeles their worst playoff defeat up to that time by a margin of 33 points in game five.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The off-season brought sweeping changes to the Pacers' lineup, as Rik Smits and coach Larry Bird retired, Chris Mullin returned to his old Golden State Warriors team, Mark Jackson signed a long-term contract with Toronto, and Dale Davis was traded to Portland for Jermaine O'Neal, who went on to average 12.9 points per game in his first year as a starter. It was a rebuilding year for the Pacers under the new head coach Isiah Thomas. However, the team still managed to return to the playoffs, where they lost to the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in four games. In the midseason of 2001–02, the Pacers made a blockbuster trade with the Chicago Bulls that sent Jalen Rose and Travis Best to Chicago in exchange for Brad Miller, Ron Artest, Kevin Ollie and Ron Mercer. In the next few years, Miller and Artest would go on to be All-Stars for the Pacers. The trade bolstered a team that had been floundering, and the Pacers managed to return to the playoffs, where they pushed the top-seeded New Jersey Nets to five games before losing Game 5 in double overtime. Jermaine O'Neal made his first of what would be several All-Star appearances in his Pacers career.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers got off to a 13–2 start in 2002–03 but hit the wall after the All-Star break thanks in no small part to Ron Artest's multiple suspensions and family tragedies befalling Jermaine O'Neal, Jamaal Tinsley and Austin Croshere. O'Neal and Brad Miller both made the All-Star team, and the Pacers made a substantial improvement as they finished 48–34, but they suffered a loss to the underdog Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. In the 2003 off-season, the Pacers managed to re-sign O'Neal for the NBA maximum and inked Reggie Miller to a modest two-year deal, but they could not afford to keep their talented center, Brad Miller. He was dealt to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Scot Pollard, who spent much of the following year watching from the bench and backing up Jeff Foster. The Pacers also signed Larry Bird as team president, and Bird wasted little time in dismissing coach Isiah Thomas and replacing him with Rick Carlisle. The Pacers responded to Carlisle extremely well and had a breakthrough 2003–04 season in which they finished 61–21, earning the best record in the NBA as well as a franchise record. O'Neal and Artest made the All-Star team, and Artest was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year; the Pacers swept the Boston Celtics easily in the first round and squeezed by a scrappy Miami Heat team in the conference semifinals. But the Detroit Pistons proved an impediment to Indiana's championship aspirations, as they defeated the Pacers in six games on their way to the NBA Championship.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Al Harrington, a small forward who had established himself as one of the best sixth-men in the NBA, was dealt in the off-season to the Atlanta Hawks in return for Stephen Jackson after Harrington allegedly demanded that the Pacers start him or trade him. Nevertheless, the Pacers started off the 2004–05 season in extremely strong fashion–until the infamous events of November 19, 2004. Toward the end of a Pacers victory over the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills on November 19, 2004, the Pacers' Ron Artest committed a hard foul against Ben Wallace. Wallace retaliated with a hard push, threw a towel at Artest, and the situation escalated to a full-scale brawl, with fans and several Pacers taking part. While Artest laid atop the scorer's table trying to calm down and do an interview, Pistons fan John Green (who was sitting next to Wallace's brother) threw a cup of Diet Coke at Artest, causing him to charge into the stands. Stephen Jackson followed him into the stands while Jermaine O'Neal struck a fan who came onto the court. The game was called off with 45.9 seconds left on the clock, and the Pacers left the floor amid a shower of beer and other beverages that rained down from the stands.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Several of the involved players were suspended by NBA Commissioner David Stern. Artest was suspended for the rest of the regular season and playoffs, a total of 73 games—the longest suspension for an on-court incident in NBA history. Other suspensions included Jackson (suspended for 30 games), O'Neal (25 games), Wallace (6 games), and the Pacers' Anthony Johnson (5 games) (O'Neal's suspension was later reduced to 15 games by arbitrator Roger Kaplan, a decision that was upheld by U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels). O'Neal was charged with two counts of assault and battery, while Artest, Jackson, Johnson, and David Harrison were charged with one count each.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: After the brawl and suspensions that followed, the Pacers fell downward into the Central Division. They went from a legitimate title contender to a team that hovered around .500 in winning percentage. The Pistons eventually became the Central Division champions. Despite the difficulties with the suspensions and injuries, the Pacers earned a sixth seed in the playoffs with a record of 44–38. An important reason for their strong finish was the re-acquisition of Dale Davis, who had been released by the New Orleans Hornets after being traded there by the Golden State Warriors. He played the final 25 games of the regular season and every playoff game, contributing a strong presence at center. And Davis' signing coincided with an injury to Jermaine O'Neal that would knock him out for virtually the remainder of the regular season—indeed, O'Neal's first missed game due to his injury was Davis' first game back with the Pacers.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Despite the adversity they had gone through, the Pacers made the playoffs for the 13th time in 14 years. In the first round, Indiana defeated the Atlantic Division champion Boston Celtics in seven games, winning Game 7 in Boston by the decisive margin of 97–70, just the third time the Celtics had dropped a Game 7 at home. The Pacers then advanced to the second round against the Detroit Pistons, in a rematch of the previous year's Eastern Conference Finals. The series featured games back at The Palace of Auburn Hills, the scene of the brawl that many assumed at the time had effectively ended the Pacers' season. After losing Game 1, the Pacers won the next two games to take a 2–1 lead. However, the Pacers could not repeat their victories against the Pistons and lost the next three games, losing the series 4–2. The final game (Game 6) was on May 19, 2005; Reggie Miller, in his final NBA game, scored 27 points and received a huge standing ovation from the crowd. Despite Miller's effort, the Pacers lost, sending Miller into retirement without an NBA Championship in his 18-year career, all with the Pacers. Miller had his No. 31 jersey retired by the Pacers on March 30, 2006, when the Pacers played the Phoenix Suns.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Despite the loss of Reggie Miller, the Artest saga, and many key injuries, the Pacers made the playoffs in 2006 for the 14th time in 15 years. They also were the only road team to win Game 1 of a first-round playoff series. However, New Jersey won Game 2 to tie the series at 1–1, heading back to Indiana. In Game 3, Jermaine O'Neal scored 37 points, as the Pacers regained a 2–1 series lead. The Nets, however, won games four and five to take a 3–2 series lead. In Game 6, Anthony Johnson scored 40 points, but the Pacers' season came to an end as the Nets won 96–90.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers finished the 2006–07 season as one of the worst seasons in team history. The turning point of the season would be an 11-game losing streak that started around the all-star break. Injuries to Jermaine O'Neal and Marquis Daniels, a lack of a solid backup point guard, the blockbuster trade midway through the season that interrupted the team chemistry, poor defensive efforts, and being the NBA's worst offensive team were the main reasons leading to the team's struggles. The April 15 loss to New Jersey Nets knocked the Pacers out of the playoffs for the first time since the 1996–97 season.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: On April 10, 2007, the Pacers announced the firing of coach Rick Carlisle, with the Pacers' first losing record in ten seasons being the main reason for the coach's dismissal. Pacers President Larry Bird noted that Carlisle had the opportunity to return to the Pacers franchise in another role. Later, Carlisle opted to leave and took a broadcasting job with ESPN before returning to coach the Dallas Mavericks in 2008 (where he would win a championship in 2011). On May 31, 2007, Jim O'Brien was named Carlisle's successor. O'Brien made it clear that he intended to take the Pacers back to the playoffs in the 2007–08 season, but he did not and did not in his tenure. He also made it known that he favored a more up-tempo, fast-paced style as opposed to Carlisle's slower, more meticulous style of coaching. Many people have taken note that this style, while exciting at times, failed to produce a winning record, and O'Brien's inability to change his style to better suit his talent available has hurt the team.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Despite missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1980s, the 2007–08 season displayed many signs of growth in the team, especially towards the end of the season. Off-court legal distraction from Jamaal Tinsley, Marquis Daniels, and Shawne Williams in the middle of the season did not help the Pacers struggles, and injuries to Tinsley and Jermaine O'Neal damaged the Pacers' already weak defense and left almost all point guard duties to recently acquired Travis Diener, who saw minimal minutes on his previous NBA teams. Despite this, and a 36–46 record, the Pacers had a very strong finish to the season, which included a desperate attempt to steal the 8th seed from the Atlanta Hawks, and dramatic improvement in forwards Danny Granger and Mike Dunleavy. Both Granger and Dunleavy were involved in the voting for Most Improved Player, with Dunleavy finishing in the top 10. The two were also the first Pacers players to score 1500 points each in a single season since Reggie Miller and Detlef Schrempf did it in the early 1990s.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: In April of the 2007–08 season, Donnie Walsh, Pacers Sports & Entertainment CEO & President, left the Indiana Pacers to join the New York Knicks. All of Walsh's basketball-related duties were given to Pacers' President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird. Walsh's business-related roles were given to co-owner Herb Simon and Jim Morris, who was promoted to President of Pacers Sports & Entertainment.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: During the 2009–10 season, Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough (drafted in 2009) suffered a season-ending ear injury, and without center Jeff Foster, the Pacers again fell into another season under .500 and missed the playoffs for four years in a row. Despite another disappointing season, the Pacers managed to sweep the waning Detroit Pistons for the first time in 5 years, and the abysmal New Jersey Nets. The team showed signs of life near the end of the season, winning nearly all of their last 14 games.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: In May 2010, after completing his rookie season, guard A. J. Price suffered a knee injury during a charity pick-up game that would require surgery. His expected rehabilitation was to last between 4 and 6 months, to be back just in time for training camp.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: In the 2010 NBA draft, the Pacers selected forward/guard Paul George with the 10th overall pick. In the second round, they drafted guard Lance Stephenson, as well as forward Ryan Reid. The draft rights to Reid were traded on draft night to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for the rights to forward/center Magnum Rolle. The Pacers signed George to his rookie contract on July 1, 2010. Stephenson signed a multi-year contract with the team on July 22. Just before training camp, Rolle was signed, along with big man Lance Allred. Both were cut before the regular season began.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: On August 11, 2010, the Pacers acquired guard Darren Collison and swingman James Posey from the New Orleans Hornets in a four-team, five-player deal. Troy Murphy was dealt to the New Jersey Nets in that trade.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: In the 2010–11 season, the team went 2–3 in the first five games. On November 9, in a home game against Denver, the team scored 54 points in the 3rd quarter alone, shooting 20–21 in the process, on the way to a 144–113 rout of the Nuggets. Led by Mike Dunleavy's 24 points in the period, the team set a franchise record for most points in a quarter and was only four points short of the all-time NBA record for points in a quarter (58) set in the 1970s.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: On January 30, 2011, the Pacers relieved Jim O'Brien of his coaching duties and named assistant coach Frank Vogel interim head coach.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: With a victory over the Washington Wizards on April 6, 2011, the Pacers clinched their first playoff berth since 2006. In the first round, they were defeated by the No. 1 seed Chicago Bulls in five games. Despite a lopsided comparison in terms of the two teams' win–loss records, three of the four Pacers' losses were close, losing games 1–3 by an average of five points.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers named Vogel their permanent head coach on July 7, 2011. They acquired George Hill from the San Antonio Spurs on draft night. After the lockout, the Pacers signed former two-time All-Star power forward David West to a two-year deal. These new players contributed to the Pacers' record of 21–12 at the All-Star break. The Pacers acquired another key piece in Leandro Barbosa from the Toronto Raptors at the trade deadline, mid-season.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: At the end of the 2011–12 season, the team, led in scoring by Danny Granger, clinched the playoffs as the third seed in the Eastern Conference. They finished with a 42–24 record, their best record since their 2003–04 season. On May 8, 2012, the Pacers defeated the Orlando Magic 105–87 to win their first playoff series since 2005 and would go on to play the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. On May 15, 2012, they defeated Miami to tie the second-round series at 1–1. On May 17, they again beat Miami 94–75 to take the series lead 2–1. However, despite a hard-fought series between the two, the Heat won Game 6 to close the series at 4–2.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The following season, Granger was sidelined by a knee injury and managed only to play five games. Granger made his return during the 2013–14 season; however, he failed to regain his form of the previous seasons. Granger was then traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for guard Evan Turner and forward Lavoy Allen in a swap that took place approximately 30 minutes before the trade deadline.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: On June 26, 2012, general manager David Morway officially resigned. The following day, president of basketball operations, Larry Bird stepped down. Bird and Morway were officially replaced by Donnie Walsh and Kevin Pritchard, respectively. Walsh returned to the organization after spending the previous three seasons in the Knicks' front office. Pritchard was promoted by the Pacers after serving as the team's director of player personnel. In the 2012 NBA draft, the Pacers selected Miles Plumlee with the 26th pick and acquired Orlando Johnson, the 36th pick from the Sacramento Kings.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: On April 7, 2013, the Pacers clinched their first Central Division championship since the 2003–04 season. They finished the 2012–13 season with a 49–32 record, the 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference, and beat the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the playoffs. The Pacers then beat the New York Knicks in six games to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2004 to face the defending champs, the Miami Heat. The Pacers lost Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on May 22, 2013, in overtime 103–102. On May 24, 2013, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pacers were victorious by a score of 97–93. The game was clinched for Indiana after David West deflected a pass from LeBron James. The team headed home to Indianapolis, where they had been a perfect 6–0 in the playoffs. The Heat won Game 3 in Indianapolis on May 26, 2013, with contributions from role players Udonis Haslem and Chris Andersen, and won 114–96. The Pacers bounced back in Game 4 – with a strong contribution from Lance Stephenson – and won 99–92. The Pacers lost Game 5 in Miami on May 30 but won Game 6 at home on June 1, extending the series to Game 7. The Pacers were defeated by Miami, 99–76.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: One year after stepping down, Larry Bird returned as president of basketball operations. Donnie Walsh, who was brought back to hold the position for Bird, was named a consultant for the Pacers. In the 2013 NBA draft, the Pacers selected Solomon Hill with the 23rd overall pick. During the 2013 off-season, the Pacers made strengthening their bench a priority, resulting in the acquisitions of point guard C. J. Watson, and forwards Chris Copeland and Luis Scola, the latter being acquired via trade with the Phoenix Suns.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The 2013–14 season saw the Pacers jump to an explosive first half of a season, as they started the season 33–7 thanks to the rise of Paul George and Lance Stephenson. Paul George and Roy Hibbert were selected for the All-Star Game. However, after the All-Star Break, the Pacers collapsed. After starting the season 40–11, the Pacers crashed and stumbled to a 16–15 finish, with rumors of fighting in the locker room being a potential cause for the meltdown. Regardless, they managed to hold onto their first seed in the East, finished the season with a 56–26 record.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers started off the playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks, defeating them in 7 games. The Pacers then defeated Washington in 6 games in the semifinals, then a rematch with the second-seeded and defending champion Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Pacers surprised many critics, taking Game 1 in the Eastern Conference Finals with a score of 107–95. Unfortunately for the Pacers, they ended up losing the next 3 to the Heat before managing to avoid elimination in Game 5 with a close win over the Heat. The game was notable for the infamous incident where Lance Stephenson blew into LeBron James' ear. Despite the win, the Pacers were eliminated in Game 6 by the Miami Heat for the third straight year.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: On August 1, 2014, Paul George, who was playing in a Team USA scrimmage in preparation for the FIBA World Cup, suffered a catastrophic open fracture to his right leg (tibia and fibula) while trying to defend James Harden on a fast break. As he tried to defend Harden from advancing to the rim, George's leg caught on the stanchion of the hoop and fractured. He was stretchered off of the court. A day later, George successfully underwent surgery. He was expected to miss the entire 2014–15 season. On April 5, 2015, Paul George returned from his injury to play in a game against the Miami Heat. George shot 5 of 12 from the field and tallied two steals, two rebounds, and two assists in a winning effort. He played for fifteen minutes.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Paul George fully recovered and made the Eastern Conference All-star team. Despite the Pacers going and making the playoffs, on May 5, 2016, Pacers' president Larry Bird announced that head coach Frank Vogel's contract would not be renewed, citing a need for "a new voice" to lead the players. Later that month former Seattle SuperSonics and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Nate McMillan was promoted to replace Vogel.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers qualified to play in the NBA Playoffs with a record, which earned them the number 7 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. However, they were given a quick exit by the defending champions, the Cleveland Cavaliers, who swept them in four games.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: On June 30, 2017, Paul George was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. The Pacers received heavy criticism for this trade, but it would eventually prove to be the best season of Oladipo's career, with him showing an increase in points, steals, assists, rebounds, free throw percentage, field goal percentage, as well as three-point percentage, which resulted to winning the NBA Most Improved Player Award. Sabonis also showed an increase in points, rebounds, and assists while leading the Pacers in rebounding during the 2017–18 season. Oladipo would be selected as a 2018 NBA All-Star reserve, while Sabonis was selected to represent Team World in the Rising Stars Challenge. Oladipo ended the season leading the NBA in steals per game. The Pacers ended the season with a 48–34 record, which earned them the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. Their record was a six-game improvement from last season with Paul George. The Pacers faced the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the 2018 NBA playoffs for the second year in a row. After taking a 2–1 series lead, the Pacers fell to the Cavaliers in seven games.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Oladipo would be selected as an All-Star reserve again for the 2019 game. However, while playing against the Toronto Raptors on January 23, 2019, he left the game with a ruptured quad tendon, and he was ruled out for the rest of the season. Regardless, the Pacers again finished the season going 48–34 and secured a playoff spot for the fourth consecutive time on March 22, but were swept in the first round of the 2019 playoffs by the Boston Celtics.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: After an active 2019 off-season, the Pacers fielded four new starters on opening night. Holdover Myles Turner was joined by reserve-turned-starter Domantas Sabonis, as well as new acquisitions Malcolm Brogdon, T. J. Warren, and Jeremy Lamb, who was slated to become a top reserve until all-star guard Victor Oladipo returned from injury.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Following an 0–3 start to the season, the Pacers held a 26–15 record halfway through the season, ranking them fifth place in the Eastern Conference. Domantas Sabonis averaged a career-best 18.5 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 5 assists a game. Subsequently, Sabonis was named an NBA All-Star for the first time in his career. Unfortunately, his season was cut short due to a foot injury and would miss the postseason.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Following the suspension of the 2019–20 NBA season, the Pacers were one of the 22 teams invited to the NBA Bubble to participate in the final 8 games of the regular season. The Pacers would finish the 2019-2020 regular season with a record of 45-28 and headed into the playoffs as the 4th seed in the Eastern Conference. On August 12, 2020, the team announced that they had extended Nate McMillan's contract. They then matched up with the 5th seeded Miami Heat where they would go on to lose the first-round series 4-0 which subsequently ended their 2019–2020 season.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Following the loss to the Heat, the Pacers parted ways with head coach Nate McMillan, despite the recent extension. On October 20, 2020, it was announced that former Toronto Raptors assistant coach, Nate Bjorkgren, had signed a multi-year deal to become the next head coach. After missing the 2021 NBA Playoffs and amid reported locker room tension, the Pacers fired Bjorkgren on June 9, 2021. On June 24, 2021, the Pacers announced that they had reached an agreement with former Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle to become the next head coach following Bjorkgren's departure. Carlisle previously was an assistant coach for the Pacers from 1997 to 2000, and was also the head coach of the Pacers previously from 2003 to 2007.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers failed to qualify for the playoffs with a record of 25-57 in the 2021–22 NBA season, which marks the first time the team failed to reach the playoffs for consecutive seasons since 2007-10.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum was home to the Pacers from 1967 to 1974. The Pacers were very successful in their tenure at the Coliseum, winning three ABA Championships. They captured the ABA titles in 1969–70, defeating the Los Angeles Stars in 6 games, in 1971–72, defeating the New York Nets in 6 games, and in the 1972–73 season, defeating the Kentucky Colonels in 7 games. The team moved to Market Square Arena in 1974. In 1976, the Pacers became a franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA) when the ABA merged with the NBA.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Market Square Arena was home of the Indiana Pacers from 1974 to 1999. The first Pacers basketball game ever held in the arena was a preseason game against the Milwaukee Bucks; attendance was 16,929. The first regular-season ABA game in the arena was held on October 18, 1974, against the San Antonio Spurs; the Pacers lost in double overtime, 129–121 in front of 7,473 fans. The first Pacers victory in Market Square Arena came on October 23 with a 122–107 win over the Spirits of St. Louis. The 1974–75 season ended for the Pacers with the ABA Finals played in Market Square Arena and Freedom Hall against their archrivals, the Kentucky Colonels. The Colonels defeated the Pacers in that championship series, winning the ABA title in five games (4–1). The 1975–76 Pacers won their final home ABA game in Market Square Arena with a 109–95 victory against the Colonels. (Kentucky won the next game by one point to win the series and advance, ending the Pacers' ABA tenure.) The Pacers continued to play in Market Square Arena after they joined the NBA. Michael Jordan's return to the Chicago Bulls after his first retirement took place at Market Square Arena in a loss to the Pacers on March 19, 1995. The final Pacers game to be played in Market Square Arena was a pre-season exhibition game against the Utah Jazz on October 23, 1999.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Indiana Pacers play their home games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, which opened in 1999. Gainbridge Fieldhouse is located in downtown Indianapolis. It is owned and operated by the Capital Improvement Board, City of Indianapolis, Indiana and its groundbreaking was on July 22, 1997, by Ellerbe Becket Architects & Engineers. Originally known as Conseco Fieldhouse, the arena officially opened on November 6, 1999. The arena was renamed to Bankers Life Fieldhouse on December 22, 2011, after a subsidiary company of Conseco. The arena adopted its current name on September 27, 2021, being sponsored by Indianapolis-based financial platform Gainbridge. It presently seats 18,165 for basketball games, down from the original 18,345 due to removal of bleacher seats at the south end in favor of adding a premium club area known as Legends. Gainbridge Fieldhouse is also the home of the WNBA's Indiana Fever, who are also owned by Herb Simon via Pacers Sports & Entertainment (PS&E). Additionally, it hosts the Big Ten men's basketball tournament and hosted the 2011 NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four. It hosts concerts and other events as well. The Fieldhouse is considered one of the best arenas in the NBA, being rated the No. 1 venue in the NBA according to the Sports Business Journal/Sports Business Daily Reader Survey.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Indiana Pacers colors are (navy) blue, yellow (gold), cool gray and white. The original team colors of blue and yellow, using a more medium shade of blue, came from the Flag of Indiana. The Pacers wear the usual white home uniform with blue and yellow trim. Their road uniform is blue with yellow trim. They also have a third uniform which is yellow with blue trim, which is worn occasionally at home or on the road. During the 1983 season, they wore the gold home uniform with blue and white trim at home. From 1997 to 2005 the Pacers sported pinstripe uniforms. One of their most iconic uniforms, worn from 1990 to 1997, and the uniform that launched Reggie Miller into superstardom, was designed by American track and field athlete Florence Griffith-Joyner, and featured a modern typeset that resembled Helvetica. The jerseys were often referred to as the "Flo-Jos" by Pacers fans.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: On July 21, 2015, the Indiana Pacers, in collaboration with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios, unveiled a new uniform based on the 1986 motion picture "Hoosiers". The Pacers wore these maroon and gold "Hickory" (the name and colors of the fictional High School from the film) uniforms for several home games and a few select road contests during the 2015–16 season. It is the first time a major North American pro sports team wore a uniform based on a film.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Indiana Pacers unveiled new uniforms and logos to coincide with the NBA's uniform contract with Nike on July 28, 2017.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers and Pistons met for the first time in the 1990 Playoffs; the Pistons swept the Pacers in three straight games on their way to their second straight NBA championship. But the rivalry truly began in the 2003–04 season. The Pacers finished with a league-best 61 wins and were led by Jermaine O'Neal, Ron Artest, and Reggie Miller, and coached by Rick Carlisle. Carlisle had been fired by Detroit at the end of the previous season. Detroit was led by Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Tayshaun Prince, and Richard Hamilton, and coached by Larry Brown. Indiana won the first 3 matchups in the regular season, before being defeated by the Pistons in the final regular-season meeting at the Palace. That was also the first time the two met after Rasheed Wallace was traded to Detroit.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: They met in the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals. Indiana narrowly won Game 1, thanks to some late heroics from Miller. Rasheed, unimpressed, stated "They Will Not Win Game 2" during an interview before the second game (locally known as the "Guaran-Sheed" victory). Late in Game 2, Detroit held a two-point lead, Billups turned over the ball, and Miller appeared to have an uncontested lay-up that would have tied the game. However, before Miller could score, he was chased down by Prince, who leapt from behind and blocked the shot. Near the end of Game 6, when Detroit held a slight lead, Artest committed a flagrant foul on Hamilton, which nearly caused tempers to boil over. Detroit won the series 4–2, and went on to win the NBA title.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: On November 19, 2004, at The Palace of Auburn Hills, what has become known as the Pacers–Pistons brawl took place. Nine players were suspended for varying lengths. Artest received the longest penalty: the remainder of the season.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: That year teams split the four regular season meetings. They met in the Eastern Conference Semifinals and split the first two games. The Pacers blew an 18-point lead, but still won Game 3 in Indianapolis. However, just as he did a year earlier, Rasheed promised a win in Game 4 saying, "When we return, we will be tied at 2." The Pistons won Games 4 and 5. The Pacers, knowing a loss would lead to Miller's retirement, fought hard, but fell to the Pistons 88–79.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: During the 1990s, the Knicks and Pacers were perennial playoff teams. They met in the playoffs 6 times from 1993 to 2000, fueling a rivalry epitomized by the enmity between Miller and prominent Knick fan Spike Lee. The rivalry was likened by Miller to the Hatfield–McCoy feud, and described by "The New York Times", in 1998 as being "as combustible as any in the league". The Knicks and Pacers met in the 2013 Eastern Conference Semifinals with the Pacers defeating the Knicks 4–2.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: A recent rivalry with the Miami Heat was triggered with the team in the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the 2012 NBA playoffs. The two previously met in the 2004 NBA playoffs (when Indiana won 4–2). , the only player still left from either team is Udonis Haslem of the Heat. Both head coaches were fined for statements made relating to the officiating: Frank Vogel accused the Heat of flopping before the series started, while Erik Spoelstra took offense to what he perceived to be deliberate head-hunting of his players on the part of the Pacers. Indiana took a 2–1 lead after Miami's Chris Bosh was sidelined with an abdominal strain. Powered by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, Miami won three straight games to take the series, 4–2. The series was marked by several suspensions, flagrant fouls, and confrontations between the players: Tyler Hansbrough's flagrant foul on Dwyane Wade (which drew blood), Udonis Haslem's retaliatory flagrant foul on Hansborough (which led to Haslem's Game 6 suspension), Wade colliding with Darren Collison in transition, Juwan Howard confronting Lance Stephenson over the latter's flashing of the choke sign to James, and Dexter Pittman elbowing Stephenson in the neck (which led to his own three-game suspension). Indiana's Danny Granger received technical fouls in three consecutive games for his confrontations with Heat players; he stripped James of his headband in Game 2 while attempting to block a shot, pulled the back of James' jersey in Game 3 while trying to stop a fast-break, and chest-bumped Wade in Game 4 after the latter was fouled by Roy Hibbert.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The following season saw improvements for both teams, from Miami's acquisition of Ray Allen and Chris Andersen, to the emergence of Paul George and Lance Stephenson. Notably, it was after the Heat lost to the Pacers that they compiled a 27-game winning streak; the last time the Heat lost two in a row in the year were the games against Indiana and Portland. During the waning minutes of Game 6 in the Semifinals between the Pacers and the New York Knicks, the Pacers' fans were chanting "Beat The Heat" as their team beat their old New York rivals. True to form, the Heat and the Pacers met in the Conference Finals of the 2013 NBA playoffs on May 22, 2013. Several instances of physicality became prominent in the series: Shane Battier received an offensive foul for throwing his knee at Hibbert's midsection; Hibbert claimed that it was intentional dirty play on the part of Battier. Andersen suffered a bloodied nose after colliding with David West. Ian Mahinmi received a retroactive flagrant foul for a grab of James' arm. Norris Cole latched a hand on West's groin area as he tried to slip through West. Wade received a retroactive flagrant foul for hitting Stephenson in the head, another incident that the Pacers, notably Paul George, felt was a dirty play. The Heat survived Game 1 on a James game-winning layup, while the Pacers came back to tie the series at 1–1 after forcing James into two late fourth-quarter turnovers for Game 2. In Game 3, the Heat set a team record for points in a post-season half with 70. It was the first time the Pacers had given up 70 points since 1992. Allen's single turnover was the least ever suffered by the Heat in a first half. Their five total turnovers is tied for the fewest in franchise history. The Game 3 victory marked the first time that an NBA team had won five straight road games by double digits. The Heat won the series 4–3, with a 99–76 win in game 7. In 2014, the Pacers and Heat renewed their rivalry in a second consecutive East Finals match up with the Heat eliminating the Pacers again. Miami and Indiana would meet for the first time since 2014 in the 2020 playoffs with the Heat sweeping the Pacers in the first round.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: "List of the last five seasons completed by the Pacers. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Indiana Pacers seasons."


title: Indiana Pacers

text: The Pacers hold the draft rights to the following unsigned draft picks who have been playing outside the NBA. A drafted player, either an international draftee or a college draftee who is not signed by the team that drafted him, is allowed to sign with any non-NBA teams. In this case, the team retains the player's draft rights in the NBA until one year after the player's contract with the non-NBA team ends. This list includes draft rights that were acquired from trades with other teams.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: There have been 13 head coaches for the Pacers franchise. Larry Staverman was the first coach of the team in 1967, when the team was in the ABA. Coach Bobby Leonard has the most wins in franchise history, with 529 in his 12 seasons with the team. After Leonard, Jack McKinney, George Irvine, and Dr. Jack Ramsay. When Ramsay abruptly resigned in 1988 after the team got off to a horrid start, Pacers legend Mel Daniels took over on an interim basis for two games, before Irvine returned for 20 more. Dick Versace then led the Pacers through another sub-par stretch before Bob Hill got the Pacers back to the playoffs and into contention. Then in 1993, Larry Brown joined the Pacers franchise and led the team to many playoff appearances as Reggie Miller blossomed into a superstar and eventual Hall of Famer. Larry Bird took over the team in 1997 and coached until 2000. Bird took the Pacers to their only NBA Finals appearance in the 1999–2000 season. Isiah Thomas, Rick Carlisle, and Jim O'Brien were next up as the Pacers top coach. The most recent head coach of the Pacers was Frank Vogel, until May 5, 2016, when his contract was not renewed after the number 7 seeded Pacers lost game 7 of the first round of the 2016 NBA playoffs to the number two seeded Toronto Raptors. Subsequently, associate head coach Nate McMillan was promoted to the top spot. After 4 seasons in which he compiled a 183–136 record, McMillan and the team parted ways on August 26, 2020, just two weeks after it had been announced that the team had re-signed him. On October 20, 2020, the team hired former Toronto Raptors assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren as their new head coach. Bjorkgren would lead the Pacers to a 34–38 season in his lone season and the team missed the playoffs. On June 24, 2021, the Pacers re-hired Rick Carlisle for a third stint as the team's head coach.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Boomer, the Pacers panther, has been the official team mascot since the 1991–1992 season. Additionally, Boomer's role has been filled by the same person, even through the current season (2021). He used to have a partner, known as Bowser. He was a canine mascot that worked in tandem with Boomer. He was retired during the 09–10 season.


title: Indiana Pacers

text: Founded in 1967, the same year as the Pacers franchise, the Indiana Pacemates were one of the original professional sports dance squads and the first such entity in the NBA. Originally known in the ABA era as the "Marathon Scoreboard Girls", then later as the "Paul Harris Pacesetters", the Pacemates name has been used since the 1972–1973 season.


title: Chief Election Commissioner of India

text: The Chief Election Commissioner of India heads the Election Commission of India, a body constitutionally empowered to conduct free and fair elections to the national and state legislatures and of President and Vice-President. This power of the Election Commission of India is derived from the Article 324 of the Constitution of India. Chief Election Commissioner of India is usually a member of the Indian Civil Service and mostly from the Indian Administrative Service. It is very difficult to remove the authority of the Chief Election Commissioner once appointed by the president, as two-thirds of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha need to present and vote against him for disorderly conduct or improper actions.


title: Chief Election Commissioner of India

text: Despite the recent changes in the hierarchy, the system always had powers to impose unambiguous rules and guidelines that applied across the entire nation e.g. as to how the ballots will be cast and counted, what will be regarded as 'unqualified' vote. India was among the early countries to use a completely electronic ballot in the parliamentary elections in 2014, which the Election Commission of India implemented across India's large and diverse population with many rural illiterate people.


title: Chief Election Commissioner of India

text: While the office has always been an important one in the machinery of the Indian political process, it gained significant public attention during the tenure of T.N. Seshan, from 1990 to 1996. Seshan is widely credited with undertaking a zealous effort to end corruption and manipulation in Indian elections.


title: Chief Election Commissioner of India

text: In June 2012, Lal Krishna Advani, a veteran Indian politician and former Deputy Prime Minister of India (as well as former Leader of the Opposition in Indian Parliament), suggested that appointment of CEC (as well as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)) should be made by a bipartisan collegium consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice, the Law Minister and the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Subsequently, M Karunanidhi, the head of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party and five times Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu supported the suggestion. Advani made this demand to remove any impression of bias or lack of transparency and fairness because, according to him, the current system was open to "manipulation and partisanship". Similar demand was made by many former CEC's such as B B Tandon, N Gopalaswamy and S Y Quraishi.


title: Chief Election Commissioner of India

text: By the "Election Commission (Condition of Service of Election Commissions And Transaction of Business) Act, 1991", the salary of the chief election commissioner is the same as salary of a Judge of Supreme Court of India. If there are other election commissioners appointed by the President to help the chief election commissioner, they also receive the same salary.


title: The Misfit of Demon King Academy

text: , also known simply as or , is a Japanese light novel series written by Shu and illustrated by Yoshinori Shizuma. The series originally began as a web novel in April 2017 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō when it was later acquired by ASCII Media Works, which officially began to publish it in March 2018. A manga adaptation by Kayaharuka was serialized online from July 2018 to July 2021, when it ended due to the author's death. An anime television series adaptation by Silver Link aired from July to September 2020. A second season will premiere in January 2023.


title: The Misfit of Demon King Academy

text: After 2,000 years of countless wars and strife, the demon king Anos Voldigoad made a deal with the human hero, Kanon, to sacrifice his own life to ensure peace could flourish. Reincarnating 2,000 years later, Anos finds that royal demons now harshly rule over lower class hybrid demons in a society that values Anos's pureblood descendants over the demons who interbred with other species, such as humans and spirits. Finding that magic as a whole has begun to decline and his descendants weaker as a result of the peace he created, Anos, now technically a hybrid himself, decides to reclaim his former title of Demon King, but first, he must graduate from the Demon King Academy where he is labeled a total misfit.


title: The Misfit of Demon King Academy

text: The series was first published online as a web novel in April 2017 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō by Shu. It was later acquired by ASCII Media Works, who published the first volume as a light novel under their Dengeki Bunko imprint in March 2018. Twelve volumes have been released as of October 2022. The light novel is licensed in North America by J-Novel Club. At Anime NYC 2022, J-Novel Club announced that the light novel will be released in print by Yen Press.


title: The Misfit of Demon King Academy

text: A manga adaptation with art by Kayaharuka was serialized online via Square Enix's "Manga UP!" website from July 2018 to July 2021 and was collected in four "tankōbon" volumes. Square Enix published the manga in English. On July 10, 2021, it was announced that the manga adaptation was cancelled due to Kayaharuka's illness as it was previously claimed they were undergoing treatment. It was later announced on July 13 that Kayaharuka passed away on July 6 from pancreatic cancer.


title: The Misfit of Demon King Academy

text: An anime television series adaptation was announced at the "Dengeki Bunko Aki no Namahōsō Festival" event on October 6, 2019. The anime was originally set to premiere in April 2020, but it was delayed until July 2020 due to production complications resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The series was animated by Silver Link and directed by Masafumi Tamura, with Shin Oonuma serving as chief director. Jin Tanaka handled the series composition, while Kazuyuki Yamayoshi designed the characters, and Keiji Inai composed the music. The 13-episode anime aired from July 4 to September 26, 2020. Civilian performed the opening theme , while Tomori Kusunoki performed the ending theme . Crunchyroll streamed the series.


title: The Misfit of Demon King Academy

text: On September 4, 2020, Aniplex of America announced that the series would receive an English dub, which premiered the following day.


title: The Misfit of Demon King Academy

text: On March 6, 2021, it was announced that the series would receive a second split-cour season with the staff and cast reprising their respective roles. Yūichirō Umehara is replacing Tatsuhisa Suzuki as the voice of Anos Voldigoad for the second season. The first cour will premiere on January 8, 2023. The opening theme is "Seien" by Lenny code fiction, while the ending theme is by Momosumomosu.


title: Luka Jović

text: Luka Jović (; born 23 December 1997) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Fiorentina and the Serbia national team.


title: Luka Jović

text: Jović was born in Loznica, FR Yugoslavia. He was raised in the small village of Batar near Bijeljina, to Bosnian Serb parents Milan and Svetlana Jović. At the age of five, he started playing football in Loznica, where he was spotted in 2004 and offered to play in Mini Maxi, a development league for kids aged between 4 and 12 in Belgrade. After just one game where Jović scored three goals his father was offered €50 for each game he played and 2,000 dinars for travelling costs from Batar to Belgrade. At one of those games he was scouted by Toma Milićević, Red Star's scout who invited him to trial with Red Star Belgrade. His playing style attracted comparisons to Darko Pančev and Radamel Falcao, who is also his idol.


title: Luka Jović

text: Jović was offered the chance to play for Red Star Belgrade in 2005. Before he committed, his father took him to train with Partizan, who had been trying to sign Jović for some time. They offered his father €200 per month for Jović to play with them, but he insisted on staying with Red Star.


title: Luka Jović

text: On 28 May 2014, at the age of 16 years, five months and five days, Jović made his professional debut against FK Vojvodina in Novi Sad, where he broke Dejan Stanković's record as the youngest goalscorer in a competitive match in the club's history. He scored the goal only two minutes after he was brought on as substitute, and the final score of 3–3 was enough to give Red Star the 2013–14 Serbian SuperLiga title.


title: Luka Jović

text: On 18 October 2014, Jović became the youngest player ever to play in Eternal derby at the age of 16 years, 9 months and 25 days, breaking the previous record of Dejan Milovanović who was 17 years and 6 months old at the time. Jović missed some crucial chances, but in spring half of the season scored six goals. His first goal of the season came against Vojvodina, in a match where Red Star celebrated its 70th birthday. He then scored against Spartak, a double against Borac and a decisive goal against Voždovac, ahead of the Eternal derby clash. He missed the end of the season and the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand due to injury. On 17 May 2015, he signed a three-year contract with Red Star to last until 2018.


title: Luka Jović

text: From the beginning of the 2015–16 season, Jović started as a first choice in Red Star attack along with Hugo Vieira and scored 3 goals in first 5 games. He scored again against Voždovac a winning goal and brought another win to Red Star at Stadion na Vračaru. He scored another game winner in Subotica, against Spartak. In November 2015, a racketeer from Loznica threatened him and his family that if they did not pay money to him, that he would "break Jović's legs". A suspect was apprehended immediately afterwards.


title: Luka Jović

text: In February 2016, Jović signed with Portuguese champions Benfica until 2021. On 9 March, he debuted for the club's reserve team in a 2–2 home draw against Sporting da Covilhã in the Segunda Liga. He debuted for the first-team on 20 March, as a substitute, in a 1–0 away victory against Boavista in the Primeira Liga.


title: Luka Jović

text: On 30 January 2017, Jović made his only appearance for the first team when he came on as a substitute in the 81st minute against Vitória de Setúbal.


title: Luka Jović

text: In June 2017, Jović joined Eintracht Frankfurt on a two-season loan while his new club secured an option to sign him on a permanent basis. He made five appearances as they won the 2017–18 DFB-Pokal, and scored the only goal of the win at Schalke 04 in the semi-finals on 18 April 2018, but was an unused substitute in the 3–1 final win over Bayern Munich.


title: Luka Jović

text: 20-year-old Jović became the youngest player to score five goals in a Bundesliga game when he did so in a 7–1 home win over Fortuna Düsseldorf on 19 October 2018. On 14 March 2019, he scored the only goal, his seventh for the campaign, in a 1–0 win over Inter Milan to secure the club's progression to the quarter finals of the Europa League. In doing so, he helped Eintracht become the first German club ever to record eight wins in a single season in the competition.


title: Luka Jović

text: On 17 April 2019, Eintracht Frankfurt exercised a clause in Jović's contract to make his loan move permanent until 30 June 2023. In May 2019, he scored in both semi-final legs against Chelsea, yet Eintracht Frankfurt lost 4–3 on penalties after drawing 1–1 in both matches. However, Jović managed to score ten goals in total in the Europa League season.


title: Luka Jović

text: On 4 June 2019, Jović signed for Real Madrid for a reported €60 million, on a six-year contract. He made his debut on 17 August 2019, coming in as a substitute in a 3–1 win over Celta Vigo. On 30 October 2019, he scored his first goal for the club in a 5–0 victory over CD Leganés.


title: Luka Jović

text: Jović started both semi-final and final match of 2019–20 Supercopa de España against Valencia and Atlético Madrid, respectively. Real won the final 4–1 on penalties on 12 January 2020, earning Jović his first trophy as a Real Madrid player. During an injury riddled season, he made 17 appearances during the league season, while scoring two goals, as Real Madrid won the 2019–20 La Liga title.


title: Luka Jović

text: On 14 January 2021, Jović was loaned back to his former club Eintracht Frankfurt until the end of the 2020–21 season. On 17 January, in his first match back with his former club, Jović came off the bench and scored two goals within half an hour as Frankfurt defeated Schalke 3–1.


title: Luka Jović

text: On 11 December 2013, Jović scored a hat-trick for Serbia U-17 in a 4–1 win against Croatia U-17. In July 2014, he was called up by youth coach Veljko Paunović to Serbia's U-19 squad for the 2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship.


title: Luka Jović

text: In May 2018, Jović was named in Serbia's preliminary squad for the FIFA World Cup in Russia. On 4 June, he made his international debut in a friendly match against Chile, coming on as a substitute for Aleksandar Mitrović in the 84th minute. Later in June, Jović was included in the final 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, where he appeared as a late substitute against Brazil.


title: Luka Jović

text: In November, 2022 he was selected in Serbia's squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He played in group stage matches against Cameroon and Switzerland. Serbia finished fourth in the group.


title: Luka Jović

text: When Jović was 10 years old, his older sister survived leukemia. He stated that period had "left a mark on their lives" and had motivated him to become a "fighter like she".


title: Luka Jović

text: On 25 February 2019, Jović became a father of a baby boy, David, with his former girlfriend Anđela Manitašević, whom he split up with in 2016. As of summer 2019, he is in a relationship with Serbian model Sofija Milošević. They have two children: Aleksej Jović (born 2020) and Teodor Jović (born 2022).


title: Luka Jović

text: On 18 March 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Jović broke Serbia's self-isolation protocol by flying from Madrid to Belgrade to attend Milošević's birthday party, drawing criticism from Prime Minister of Serbia Ana Brnabić herself and facing possible charges. On 30 December 2021, he tested positive for COVID-19.


title: Hungarians

text: Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Uralic language family. There are an estimated 15 million ethnic Hungarians and their descendants worldwide, of whom 9.6 million live in today's Hungary. About 2–3 million Hungarians live in areas that were part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 and are now parts of Hungary's seven neighbouring countries, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria. Significant groups of people with Hungarian ancestry live in various other parts of the world, most of them in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Chile, Brazil, Australia, and Argentina.


title: Hungarians

text: Hungarians can be divided into several subgroups according to local linguistic and cultural characteristics; subgroups with distinct identities include the Székelys, the Csángós, the Palóc, and the Matyó.


title: Hungarians

text: The Hungarians' own ethnonym to denote themselves in the Early Middle Ages is uncertain. The exonym "Hungarian" is thought to be derived from Oghur-Turkic "On-Ogur" (literally "Ten Arrows" or "Ten Tribes"). Another possible explanation comes from the Old East Slavic "Yugra" ("Югра"). It may refer to the Hungarians during a time when they dwelt east of the Ural Mountains along the natural borders of Europe and Asia before their conquest of the Carpathian Basin.


title: Hungarians

text: Prior to the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895/6 and while they lived on the steppes of Eastern Europe east of the Carpathian Mountains, written sources called the Magyars "Hungarians", specifically: "Ungri" by Georgius Monachus in 837, "Ungri" by "Annales Bertiniani" in 862, and "Ungari" by the "Annales ex Annalibus Iuvavensibus" in 881. The Magyars/Hungarians probably belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance, and it is possible that they became its ethnic majority. In the Early Middle Ages, the Hungarians had many names, including "Węgrzy" (Polish), "Ungherese" (Italian), "Ungar" (German), and "Hungarus". The "H-" prefix is a later addition of Medieval Latin.


title: Hungarians

text: The Hungarian people refer to themselves by the demonym "Magyar" rather than "Hungarian". "Magyar" possibly derived from the name of the most prominent Hungarian tribe, the "Megyer". The tribal name "Megyer" became "Magyar" in reference to the Hungarian people as a whole.


title: Hungarians

text: The Greek cognate of "Tourkia" () was used by the scholar and Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII "Porphyrogenitus" in his "De Administrando Imperio" of c. AD 950, though in his use, "Turks" always referred to Magyars. This was a misnomer, as while the Magyars do have some Turkic genetic and cultural influence, including their historical social structure being of Turkic origin, they still are not widely considered as part of the Turkic people.


title: Hungarians

text: The obscure name "kerel" or "keral", found in the 13th-century work the Secret History of the Mongols, possibly referred to Hungarians and derived from the Hungarian title "király" 'king'.


title: Hungarians

text: The historical Latin phrase "Natio Hungarica" ("Hungarian nation") had a wider and political meaning because it once referred to all nobles of the Kingdom of Hungary, regardless of their ethnicity or mother tongue.


title: Hungarians

text: The origin of Hungarians, the place and time of their ethnogenesis, has been a matter of debate. The Hungarian language is classified as an Ugric language, and Hungarians are commonly considered an Ugric people that originated from the Ural Mountains, Western Siberia or the Middle Volga region. The relatedness of Hungarians with other Ugric peoples is confirmed by linguistic and genetic data, but modern Hungarians have substantial admixture from local European populations. The consensus among linguists is that the Hungarian language is a member of the Uralic family and that it diverged from its Ugric relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium BC, in western Siberia, east of the southern Urals, and arrived into Central Europe by the historical Magyar or Hungarian "conquerors". The historical Magyars were found to show significant affinity to modern Mansi and Khanty people, and stood also in contact with Iranian peoples, Turkic peoples (presumably Oghuric-speakers) and Slavs. The historical Magyars created an alliance of Steppe tribes, consisting of an Ugric/Magyar ruling class, Iranian but also Turkic/Oghuric and Slavic tribes, which conquered the Pannonian Steppe and surrounding regions, giving rise to modern Hungarians and Hungarian culture.


title: Hungarians

text: "Hungarian pre-history", i.e. the history of the "ancient Hungarians" before their arrival in the Carpathian basin at the end of the 9th century, is thus a "tenuous construct", based on linguistics, analogies in folklore, archaeology and subsequent written evidence. In the 21st century, historians have argued that "Hungarians" did not exist as a discrete ethnic group or people for centuries before their settlement in the Carpathian basin. Instead, the formation of the people with its distinct identity was a process. According to this view, Hungarians as a people emerged by the 9th century, subsequently incorporating other, ethnically and linguistically divergent, peoples.


title: Hungarians

text: During the 4th millennium BC, the Uralic-speaking peoples who were living in the central and southern regions of the Urals split up. Some dispersed towards the west and northwest and came into contact with Turkic and Iranian speakers who were spreading northwards. From at least 2000 BC onwards, the Ugric-speakers became distinguished from the rest of the Uralic community, of which the ancestors of the Magyars, being located farther south, were the most numerous. Judging by evidence from burial mounds and settlement sites, they interacted with the Indo-Iranian Andronovo culture and Baikal-Altai Asian cultures.


title: Hungarians

text: In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the Hungarians moved to the west of the Ural Mountains, to the area between the southern Ural Mountains and the Volga River, known as Bashkiria (Bashkortostan) and Perm Krai. In the early 8th century, some of the Hungarians moved to the Don River, to an area between the Volga, Don and the Seversky Donets rivers. Meanwhile, the descendants of those Hungarians who stayed in Bashkiria remained there as late as 1241.


title: Hungarians

text: The Hungarians around the Don River were subordinates of the Khazar Khaganate. Their neighbours were the archaeological Saltov culture, i.e. Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians, Onogurs) and the Alans, from whom they learned gardening, elements of cattle breeding and of agriculture. Tradition holds that the Hungarians were organized in a confederacy of seven tribes. The names of the seven tribes were: "Jenő", "Kér", "Keszi", "Kürt-Gyarmat", "Megyer", "Nyék", and "Tarján".


title: Hungarians

text: Around 830, a rebellion broke out in the Khazar khaganate. As a result, three Kabar tribes of the Khazars joined the Hungarians and moved to what the Hungarians call the Etelköz, the territory between the Carpathians and the Dnieper River. The Hungarians faced their first attack by the Pechenegs around 854. The new neighbours of the Hungarians were the Varangians and the eastern Slavs. From 862 onwards, the Hungarians (already referred to as the "Ungri") along with their allies, the Kabars, started a series of looting raids from the Etelköz into the Carpathian Basin, mostly against the Eastern Frankish Empire (Germany) and Great Moravia, but also against the Balaton principality and Bulgaria.


title: Hungarians

text: In 895/896, under the leadership of Árpád, some Hungarians crossed the Carpathians and entered the Carpathian Basin. The tribe called "Megyer" was the leading tribe of the Hungarian alliance that conquered the centre of the basin. At the same time (c. 895), due to their involvement in the 894–896 Bulgaro-Byzantine war, Hungarians in Etelköz were attacked by Bulgaria and then by their old enemies the Pechenegs. The Bulgarians won the decisive battle of Southern Buh. It is uncertain whether or not those conflicts contributed to the Hungarian departure from Etelköz.


title: Hungarians

text: From the upper Tisza region of the Carpathian Basin, the Hungarians intensified their looting raids across continental Europe. In 900, they moved from the upper Tisza river to Transdanubia, which later became the core of the arising Hungarian state. By 902, the borders were pushed to the South-Moravian Carpathians and the Principality of Moravia collapsed. At the time of the Hungarian migration, the land was inhabited only by a sparse population of Slavs, numbering about 200,000, who were either assimilated or enslaved by the Hungarians.


title: Hungarians

text: Archaeological findings (e.g. in the Polish city of Przemyśl) suggest that many Hungarians remained to the north of the Carpathians after 895/896. There is also a consistent Hungarian population in Transylvania, the Székelys, who comprise 40% of the Hungarians in Romania. The Székely people's origin, and in particular the time of their settlement in Transylvania, is a matter of historical controversy.


title: Hungarians

text: In 907, the Hungarians destroyed a Bavarian army in the Battle of Pressburg and laid the territories of present-day Germany, France, and Italy open to Hungarian raids, which were fast and devastating. The Hungarians defeated the Imperial Army of Louis the Child, son of Arnulf of Carinthia and last legitimate descendant of the German branch of the house of Charlemagne, near Augsburg in 910. From 917 to 925, Hungarians raided through Basle, Alsace, Burgundy, Saxony, and Provence. Hungarian expansion was checked at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, ending their raids against Western Europe, but raids on the Balkan Peninsula continued until 970.


title: Hungarians

text: The Pope approved Hungarian settlement in the area when their leaders converted to Christianity, and Stephen I ("Szent István", or Saint Stephen) was crowned King of Hungary in 1001. The century between the arrival of the Hungarians from the eastern European plains and the consolidation of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1001 was dominated by pillaging campaigns across Europe, from Dania (Denmark) to the Iberian Peninsula (contemporary Spain and Portugal). After the acceptance of the nation into Christian Europe under Stephen I, Hungary served as a bulwark against further invasions from the east and south, especially by the Turks.


title: Hungarians

text: The first accurate measurements of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary including ethnic composition were carried out in 1850–51. There is a debate among Hungarian and non-Hungarian (especially Slovak and Romanian) historians about the possible changes in the ethnic structure of the region throughout history. Some historians support the theory that the proportion of Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin was at an almost constant 80% during the Middle Ages. Non-Hungarians numbered hardly more than 20% to 25% of the total population. The Hungarian population began to decrease only at the time of the Ottoman conquest, reaching as low as around 39% by the end of the 18th century. The decline of the Hungarians was due to the constant wars, Ottoman raids, famines, and plagues during the 150 years of Ottoman rule. The main zones of war were the territories inhabited by the Hungarians, so the death toll depleted them at a much higher rate than among other nationalities. In the 18th century, their proportion declined further because of the influx of new settlers from Europe, especially Slovaks, Serbs and Germans. In 1715 (after the Ottoman occupation), the Southern Great Plain was nearly uninhabited but now has 1.3 million inhabitants, nearly all of them Hungarians. As a consequence, having also the Habsburg colonization policies, the country underwent a great change in ethnic composition as its population more than tripled to 8 million between 1720 and 1787, while only 39% of its people were Hungarians, who lived primarily in the centre of the country.


title: Hungarians

text: Other historians, particularly Slovaks and Romanians, argue that the drastic change in the ethnic structure hypothesized by Hungarian historians in fact did not occur. In particular, there is a fierce debate among Hungarians and Romanian historians about the ethnic composition of Transylvania through these times. For instance, Ioan-Aurel Pop argues that the Hungarian army of IX-X centuries, while it was eminently suitable for raids, was not at all fit to occupy territories already densely inhabited, especially in the hilly and mountainous areas. He adds that Hungarians, outside of Alföld, region where they were seminomadic during this time, were not able to become colonizers, and that for this reason the regions of Transylvania, Upper Hungary and Croatia were integrated in the Hungarian Kingdom in a later stage, after the year 1000, after the sedentarization, Christianization and partial feudalization of the Hungarians. Pop ignores that plenty Magyar artifacts and burial sites have been found in Transylvania from the 10th century.


title: Hungarians

text: In the 19th century, the proportion of Hungarians in the Kingdom of Hungary rose gradually, reaching over 50% by 1900 due to higher natural growth and Magyarization. Between 1787 and 1910 the number of ethnic Hungarians rose from 2.3 million to 10.2 million, accompanied by the resettlement of the Great Hungarian Plain and Délvidék by mainly Roman Catholic Hungarian settlers from the northern and western counties of the Kingdom of Hungary.


title: Hungarians

text: Spontaneous assimilation was an important factor, especially among the German and Jewish minorities and the citizens of the bigger towns. On the other hand, about 1.5 million people (about two-thirds non-Hungarian) left the Kingdom of Hungary between 1890–1910 to escape from poverty.


title: Hungarians

text: The years 1918 to 1920 were a turning point in the Hungarians' history. By the Treaty of Trianon, the Kingdom had been cut into several parts, leaving only a quarter of its original size. One-third of the Hungarians became minorities in the neighbouring countries. During the remainder of the 20th century, the Hungarians population of Hungary grew from 7.1 million (1920) to around 10.4 million (1980), despite losses during the Second World War and the wave of emigration after the attempted revolution in 1956. The number of Hungarians in the neighbouring countries tended to remain the same or slightly decreased, mostly due to assimilation (sometimes forced; see Slovakization and Romanianization) and to emigration to Hungary (in the 1990s, especially from Transylvania and Vojvodina).


title: Hungarians

text: After the "baby boom" of the 1950s ("Ratkó era"), a serious demographic crisis began to develop in Hungary and its neighbours. The Hungarian population reached its maximum in 1980, then began to decline.


title: Hungarians

text: For historical reasons (see Treaty of Trianon), significant Hungarian minority populations can be found in the surrounding countries, most of them in Romania (in Transylvania), Slovakia, and Serbia (in Vojvodina). Sizable minorities live also in Ukraine (in Transcarpathia), Croatia (primarily Slavonia), and Austria (in Burgenland). Slovenia is also host to a number of ethnic Hungarians, and Hungarian language has an official status in parts of the Prekmurje region. Today more than two million ethnic Hungarians live in nearby countries.


title: Hungarians

text: There was a referendum in Hungary in December 2004 on whether to grant Hungarian citizenship to Hungarians living outside Hungary's borders (i.e. without requiring a permanent residence in Hungary). The referendum failed due to insufficient voter turnout. On 26 May 2010, Hungary's Parliament passed a bill granting dual citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living outside of Hungary. Some neighboring countries with sizable Hungarian minorities expressed concerns over the legislation.


title: Hungarians

text: The Hungarian language belongs to the Uralic language family. Modern Hungarians are however genetically rather distant from their closest linguistic relatives (Mansi and Khanty), and more similar to the neighbouring non-Uralic neighbors. Modern Hungarians share a small but significant "Western Siberian" component with other Uralic-speaking populations maximized among modern Khanty. The historical Magyars had a higher "Western Siberian" component as well as strong links to the populations of the Baraba region, Inner Asia, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe and Central Asia. Modern Hungarians also display noteworthy affinity with historical Sintashta culture samples.


title: Hungarians

text: Archeological mtDNA haplogroups show a similarity between Hungarians and Turkic-speaking Tatars andBashkirs, while another study found a link between the Khanty and Bashkirs, suggesting that the Bashkirs are a mixture of Turkic, Ugric and Indo-European contributions. The homeland of ancient Hungarians is around the Ural Mountains, and the Hungarian affinities with the Karayakupovo culture is widely accepted among researchers. A full genome study by Triska et al. 2017 found that the Bashkirs ""were strongly influenced by Ancient North Eurasians, highlighting a mismatch of their cultural background and genetic ancestry and an intricacy of the historic interface between Turkic and Uralic populations"". The proto-Uralic peoples homeland may have been the Okunev culture, a forest culture in the Altai-Sayan region, characterized by high genetic affinity to the Botai culture in Northern Central Asia and the ancient Tarim mummies in modern day Xinjiang, as well as Western Siberian hunter-gatherers (WSHG). Their "eastern" genetic affinities may be explained by contact with proto-Turkic peoples. The arrival of the Indo-European Afanasievo culture may have caused the dispersal and expansion of proto-Uralic languages along the Seima-Turbino cultural area.


title: Hungarians

text: According to Neparáczki: "From all recent and archaic populations tested the Volga Tatars show the smallest genetic distance to the entire Conqueror population" and "a direct genetic relation of the Conquerors to Onogur-Bulgar ancestors of these groups is very feasible." Genetic data found that among ""Western Turkic speakers, like Chuvash and Volga Tatar, the East Asian component was detected only in low amounts (~ 5%)"", linking them to both Magyar conquerors and the historical Bolgars.


title: Hungarians

text: According to a study by Pamjav, the area of Bodrogköz suggested to be a population isolate found an elevated frequency of Haplogroup N: R1a-M458 (20.4%), I2a1-P37 (19%), R1a-Z280 (14.3%), and E1b-M78 (10.2%). Various R1b-M343 subgroups accounted for 15% of the Bodrogköz population. Haplogroup N1c-Tat covered 6.2% of the lineages, but most of it belonged to the N1c-VL29 subgroup, which is more frequent among Balto-Slavic speaking than Finno-Ugric speaking peoples. Other haplogroups had frequencies of less than 5%.


title: Hungarians

text: Among 100 Hungarian men, 90 of whom from the Great Hungarian Plain, the following haplogroups and frequencies are obtained: 30% R1a, 15% R1b, 13% I2a1, 13% J2, 9% E1b1b1a, 8% I1, 3% G2, 3% J1, 3% I*, 1% E*, 1% F*, 1% K*. The 97 Székelys belong to the following haplogroups: 20% R1b, 19% R1a, 17% I1, 11% J2, 10% J1, 8% E1b1b1a, 5% I2a1, 5% G2, 3% P*, 1% E*, 1% N. It can be inferred that Szekelys have more significant German admixture. A study sampling 45 Palóc from Budapest and northern Hungary, found 60% R1a, 13% R1b, 11% I, 9% E, 2% G, 2% J2. A study estimating possible Inner Asian admixture among nearly 500 Hungarians based on paternal lineages only, estimated it at 5.1% in Hungary, at 7.4 in Székelys and at 6.3% at Csángós.


title: Hungarians

text: An analysis of Bashkir samples from the Burzyansky and Abzelilovsky districts of the Republic of Bashkortostan in the Volga-Ural region, revealed them to belong to the R1a subclade R1a-SUR51, which is shared in significant amounts with the historical Magyars and the royal Hungarian lineage, and representing the closest kin to the Hungarian Árpád dynasty. This subclade was also found among historical Scytho-Iranian samples in modern day Afghanistan.


title: Hungarians

text: Modern Hungarians show relative close affinity to surrounding populations, but harbour a small "Western Siberian" component maximized among the Ugric Khanty people, and associated with the historical Magyars. Modern Hungarians formed from several historical population groupings, including the historical Magyars, assimilated Slavic and Germanic groups, as well as Central Asian Steppe tribes (presumably Turkic and Iranian tribes). Genetic analyses link parts of the historical Magyars ancestors to West Siberian hunter-gatherers. These historical Western Siberian hunter-gatherers were characterized by high Ancient North Eurasian ancestry and less Eastern Siberian admixture, next to geneflow from Yamnaya Steppe pastoralists.


title: Hungarians

text: Historical Magyar genome corresponds largely with the modern Bashkirs, and can be modeled as ~50% Mansi-like, ~35% Sarmatian-like, and ~15% Hun/Xiongnu-like. The admixture event is suggested to have taken place in the Southern Ural region at 643–431 BCE. Modern Hungarians were found to be admixed descendants of the historical Magyar conquerors with local Europeans, as 31 Hungarian samples could be modelled as two-way admixtures of "Conq_Asia_Core" and "EU_Core" in varying degrees. The historical Magyar component among modern Hungarians is estimated at an average frequency of 13%, which can be explained by the relative smaller population size of Magyar conquerors compared to local European groups.


title: Hungarians

text: Besides the various peoples mentioned above, the Magyars later were influenced by other populations in the Carpathian Basin. Among these are the Cumans, Pechenegs, Jazones, West Slavs, Germans, and Vlachs (Romanians). Ottomans, who occupied the central part of Hungary from 1526 until 1699, inevitably exerted an influence, as did the various nations (Germans, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, and others) that resettled the depopulated central and southern territories of the kingdom (roughly present-day South Hungary, Vojvodina in Serbia and Banat in Romania) after their departure. Similar to other European countries, Jewish, Armenian, and Roma (Gypsy) ethnic minorities have been living in Hungary since the Middle Ages.