At this time a decade ago I wasn?t typing a column on my Dell laptop three years into my career as a sports journalist; I was sitting on a blue-and-yellow beanbag playing some version of NBA Live on my Playstation. I was undoubtedly playing with the Indiana Pacers because up until a few years ago I thought it was sacrilegious to play as any other team.

I was probably trying to recreate some kind of magical performance by Reggie Miller against the New York Knicks; something that happened often and I dreamt about even more frequently.

The late nineties were great to both the Pacers and Knicks as they were playoff fixtures in what was then a strong Eastern Conference. Both New York and Indiana saw their window of opportunity close, however, as neither came away with an NBA title during their runs as two of the best teams in the league.

Today, neither team seems destined to even make the postseason in a sport where more than half of the league?s thirty teams qualify each spring. Neither team tasted the playoffs last season either, a depressing reality for two cities that were once a huge topic of conversation in the NBA.

Indiana?s fall from grace has been steep but at the same time measured. Just four years ago it looked like the Pacers were going to give Reggie Miller a proper sendoff with an NBA title as they cruised to a 61-21 record during the 2003-04 regular season. Untested through the first two rounds of the playoffs, they met the Detroit Pistons in the Conference Finals and promptly the wheels fell off the bus.

Actually, the wheels looked pretty sturdy until the final moments of Game Two when Tayshaun Prince blocked a layup attempt by Reggie Miller that would have almost certainly given the Pacers a 2-0 series lead. Prince?s athletic play unknowingly sent the Pacers into a free fall as they lost to the Pistons in six games, missing out on an opportunity to topple the Lakers for the league title.

The next season, Miller?s last, began with the now infamous 'Malice at the Palace' as Ron Artest further destroyed the Pacers? chances at getting Reggie a ring before he retired his jumpshot. They stumbled into the playoffs that season and rode the emotional high of Miller?s final run to the second round. Once again, their foe was the Detroit Pistons.

Six games later, Reggie rode off into the sunset at Conseco Fieldhouse, and the fall of the Pacers continued.

Struggling with injuries, and after dealing Ron Artest to the Kings for Peja Stojakovic, Indiana stumbled into the postseason once again. This time they fell to the New Jersey Nets in the first round after stunning the higher-seeded team in Game One of the series.

The 2006-07 season only got worse. With image issues mounting, the Pacers decided to deal Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington to the Golden State Warriors for Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy, and Ike Diogu. Indiana knew they were giving up more talent than they were getting, but the players they brought in had positive public images and ?the powers that be? were trying their hardest to polish the franchise?s tarnished reputation.

As the team struggled to mesh following the January deal, they narrowly missed the postseason snapping a consecutive appearance streak of nine years. The golden years had clearly left blue in Indiana.

This season, the team looks as lost as ever. Barring a second half surge, they will post their second losing season since the 1995-96 campaign when they only won 39 games.

The playoff drought for the Knicks began back in 2004 ? the same year Indiana last challenged for the NBA title ? when New York was swept by the Nets in the first round. The last time the Knicks advanced past the first round was actually when they faced the Pacers in the Conference Finals of 2000, the year Indiana won in six games and earned a date with the Lakers in the Finals.

New York?s struggles have been lingering around for a longer period of time but arrived much more gradually. The Knicks haven?t posted a winning record since the 2000-01 season when they won 48 games. Thanks in large part to Isiah Thomas, who came on as the team?s president of basketball operations in 2003, the Knicks' locker room has looked more like a revolving door than anything else.

Since their last playoff series win, the Knicks have had six different coaches: Jeff Van Gundy, Don Chaney, Lenny Wilkins, Herb Williams, Larry Brown, and Thomas. Only two of the team?s current players were with the team before the 2004-05 season: Jamal Crawford and Stephon Marbury. Crawford was acquired in August of 2004 while Marbury arrived in a trade in January of that same year.

In addition to Isiah?s unspoken motto of ?trade as much as possible?, the Knicks have also been doomed by their youth. Marbury and Malik Rose are the team?s elderstatesmen, each bringing eleven years of experience to the table. Six of the team?s fifteen players have two years or less of service in the league, and ten have six seasons or fewer under their belt.

It?s not going to happen again this year, or any time in the near future for that matter, but the Pacers and Knicks have battled six times in the NBA playoffs. Those six meetings took place over an eight year period from 1993 to 2000 with each team coming out on top three times.

During the mid-nineties these two teams made up the NBA?s hottest rivalry. Their supposed hatred for one another fueled the league through Michael Jordan?s first retirement and brought us tremendous moments in the process. Who could forget classics like Miller?s eight points and eight seconds or Larry Johnson?s four-point play, as writers christened the rivalry ?Hicks Versus Knicks?.

They met thirty-five times over that eight-year period with the average margin of victory standing at a mere eight points. Twelve of those games were decided by four points or fewer as they seemed to have a knack for fantastic finishes.

Now, just ten years later, neither team seems capable of putting together forty-eight minutes of good basketball, let alone an entire season of quality play. New York has taken to writing player?s names in white-out in their expensive locker room, and Indiana carries a handful of extra trainer?s tables with them on the road.

The Pacers haven?t gotten eighty games out of Jermaine O?Neal since 2000-01, his first season with the team, and when Jamaal Tinsley isn?t getting into legal trouble he?s getting fitted for a new suit to wear on the bench. Tinsley played in eighty games for the Pacers in his 2001-02 rookie campaign but has averaged only sixty games a year in his seven seasons.

Half of this current New York roster still gets carded when they head out for a night on the town, and if that?s not the case they are getting carted off the court due to injury. Marbury, the teams? highest-paid and longest-tenured player, has had a multitude of issues during his four years in The Big Apple.

If he?s not physically unable to play, he?s emotionally unable to take the court. If neither of those two afflictions are keeping him off the hardwood, then it?s a press-fueled feud with his head coach. Either way, one of the team?s only veteran presences hasn?t been much of a presence at all.

The last decade has been a rollercoaster ride for both the Pacers and Knicks, and unfortunately the ride doesn?t seem to be nearing an end.

With any luck, we?ll be discussing these two franchises once again in another decade. Only the premise of the story will be vastly different.

Andrew Perna is a Senior Writer for RealGM. Feel free to contact him via e-mail at [email protected], as he is always interested to hear what readers have to say.