Baca: Pascal’s Sunday Stage Could Elevate NMSU — Don’t Miss the Moment By Nitpicking Things That Aren't There

If Siakam Wins, It’ll Be a Finals Legacy Moment — And a Win for NMSU, Too. Time for Aggie Fans to Smile and Soak It In and Not Nitpick.

Hello All.

I said I would do one more Pascal column when the Finals are done. I lied. I had to do one before Game 7. I did not think the Pacers would win on Thursday, much less thoroughly beat down a 68-win regular season team like the Oklahoma City Thunder.

It was one of those moments where #43 from Douala, Cameroon, Pascal Siakam, a man that has been in our lives for about 12 years or so, planted his flag on a worldwide stage unlike any other time in his career.

Siakam led the Pacers to a 108-91 win, although in reality, the whole fourth quarter was played on cruise control with the Pacers up 30 after 3 quarters.

Siakam had 16 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists in the big win, including some all-time viral moments in that game which will mean as much for the next decade or two if they win tomorrow.

More on that in a bit.

Although he was the 3rd leading scorer in the game for Indiana, he was arguably the straw that stirs the drink in the game, leading by example, and also leading with a NBA Championship Ring he won 6 years ago in Toronto.

Unlike a lot of people who may be reading this article, I have spent the better part of 25 years of adulthood understanding the impact of meaningful moments.

Whether the moments are for a town I lived in, a cause I value, a person I like, or a team I root for, these moments can mean everything as they are the binder between where we were and where we want to be.

I really thought Pascal and the Pacers would fall on Thursday, mainly because I watched over 100 NBA games, most of which did not compromise my home life or my time devoted to things other than sports. I am not an EXPERT, but I make educated guesses, and many people got it wrong as will. Now I want this win more than anything for Las Cruces and NM State. Aggies fans and Las Crucens should want it too, although Siakam is a decade removed from his time here.

In this commentary available to all subscribers below, I want to go over why it is important, a couple things that happened on social media on Thursday that are important to Aggies fans, and the end result of a Siakam title win tomorrow if it happens.

But before I do, a reminder that this is a reader-supported publication. While there are many choices out there for your entertainment dollar, a Las Cruces who makes an entertaining sports column should be numero uno for a sports fan. We may not always see eye to eye, but I will give you a lot to read, an open ear to listen to your thoughts, and most importantly, a conduit to more content about the stuff YOU LIKE.

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Baca: Thursday Night’s Game Showed Me What a Star Can Do For NM State - Why We Need To Embrace It and Not Nitpick Things That Aren’t There.

Part of my job is to be on social media. I know, I know. Some people say “being on social media sounds like an easy job.”

It really isn’t. It’s putting yourself into stuff you don’t want to be in all the time. Sometimes you have to have difficult interactions proactively because it is how you make your mark in a conversation.

But one thing I was waiting for in Game 6, especially after ABC, who is broadcasting the Finals, mentioned they would start carrying pregame introductions because a handful of people complained on social media that I knew… I KNEW I would have to deal with social media discourse over this:

“From CAMEROON… Pascal Siiiiakam”

I had scrapped a column about a year ago when I did a commentary about Siakam’s trade to the Pacers and the “Why isn’t Pascal close to NM State?” conversation bubbled up again.

I had heard intros for Pascal for years and from the day he was drafted, Cameroon was first.

in 2019, when the Raptors made the Finals, his intro then…

Cameroon was front and center. In following his career since the day he walked into the Pan Am Center, he was always filled with Cameroonian Pride, as he should be.

Siakam loved this place though. According to Siakam’s own words in 2016 (read it), Preston Laird, and Marvin Menzies sold him on the notion that this team is more like a family, and Siakam, a man as tied together by family as anyone who has walked on the Pan Am court, believed them and he came here… learned about Chipotle Burritos and celebrated his time in Las Cruces.

Academic issues prevented him to play the first year he was here, and thinking about that today, it’s so interesting how even a decade ago, the “process” of getting onto the court was so much different than it is now, he stuck it out.

In that same article he wrote, an article I NEVER see mentioned at all anywhere else, because it doesn’t fit a lot of the narrative of what some might want to think, he talks about the day his dad died, and he mentioned how he wanted to go back for the funeral.

This is Siakam’s own words:
My father had passed away from injuries he sustained in a car accident two weeks prior.

I broke down crying. I’d never felt further away from home. Nothing mattered at that moment — not basketball, not school. Only my family. I wanted to go home to be with them and say goodbye to my father.

But my mom wouldn’t let me. She told me that my father would want me to keep playing. I was distraught, but after I thought about it, I realized that she was right.

Inside of me, a new fire was burning. I wasn’t worried about proving people wrong anymore, or working to get back at the guys who had beaten on me. I was playing for my dad now. I was playing for his dream of having a son in the NBA. I wanted to make him proud and give him this gift.

So for the last ten years, Aggies fans largely have ignored Siakam’s own words he said in the Player’s Tribune in 2016 and have spread this convoluted story of anger, frustration, and red tape that prevented him from going back to Cameroon to see his dad one last time.

Now, I am not saying that what Aggies fans have been told is incorrect, but Siakam addressed it in his own words. His mom told him to stay and be with his team. Siakam took a high road, so why not us?

So when Thursday rolled around, and the “From Cameroon, Pascal Siakam” introduction happened, I knew since most of social media Aggie Nation has heard the same story, I knew the more active ones on social would be focused on, “Why didn’t they say New Mexico State in the introduction?” after his intro in OKC on Monday, and tomorrow will say “From NM State.”

Many take it as an indirect slight at NM State for whatever supposedly happened. Me? Someone who is familiar with NBA embracing their international stars by touting the countries their players are from as a not-so-humble brag because countries are bigger than universities to them in terms of eyeballs, importance, and representation. Got to think about college basketball is technically a feeder system and competition for the entertainment dollar. So, NBA will always default to hyping a nationality over college, and that’s the way it has been for a decade.

But some rabble-rousers online, mostly in social media channels a lot of you don’t frequent, wanted to take this as some slight against all of us, and then laid into a “Why doesn’t Pascal Donate? Why doesn’t he come back to visit?” and it gets me to a place of discomfort as a sportswriter. I don’t get the neediness.

Like any good parent, like Pascal’s mom, and hell, even his dad did at 11 when he told him he WAS going to seminary school, they wanted him to grow into a man away from home, and then when the time is right, have all these life lessons and experience to carry on into the next generations who will look up to him.

A photo-op session at the Farmer’s Market on Main Street does nothing but serve people who have vested interests in other things other than watching this superstar come into his own in a big way this month, and if he wins Sunday night, this title will be as much his as anyone’s on that team, and even Tyrese Halliburton, the supposed “star” of Indiana would say that.

Pascal Siakam is 31 years old. He’s single. As far as I know, he has no kids. His story is still being written, yet a lot of folks have etched in stone why he doesn’t love us. Why do we do that to ourselves? He is as open a book as you can get. His coming out party in the 2019 finals when he was the player of the game in Game 1, he dedicated that to his dad who passed away 5 years before.

In this world of keeping up appearances, and a world that looks at you in high regard when you pretend to act hard, he was at his most vulnerable, and that shows you every bit of character that Siakam possesses. He is not one for petty gripes.

So during that first quarter, I was watching the game, but I was focused on the petty chatter about the PA Announcer mentioning his home country other than our school and just laughing and not paying attention to the game.

I went outside to water my freshly seeded lawn and came back inside to see his all time dunk over an OKC defender, which will live on for decades, even if they don’t win in my opinion

You don’t think I won’t be using this for years in content I create? No way!

Siakam’s jam is worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views every single month until the end of time. A certain percentage of people google him, and then they go, “Huh.. he went to NM State. How cool is that for him that he came from a small school to the worldwide stage!”

You can’t buy publicity like that, and heck there are some out there raising money for the school that could never create passive interest the way his slam dunk did for NM State. Yes, one shot cemented his college lineage, all the coaching Laird, Menzies, Weir, Nurse and Carlisle instilled in him over the last decade and created a moment that NM State Aggies fans can call their own.

One other silly, if not dumb thing that came from Thursday was this.

Siakam rolling his eyes in a moment with his teammates. These moments are rarely seen by the general public, but ABC cameras were rolling and for the last 48 hours online, a deep in meditating/praying/whatever Pascal Siakam has went viral for this moment, and this too will linger for decades going forward. Don’t believe me? Catch me in 2045. I will be 62 years old and prove you wrong by doing whatever they call Googling them this picture and seeing all the memes that came from it.

This was shared with me on social media today, where Siakam resembles WWE wrestler The Undertaker.

A slice of hilarious virality for a player that is “ours” in the sense that he played on our court, he won games for our team, and more importantly, he makes us proud every time he is out there. When he makes the hall of fame, much like the Michael Jordan crying meme is shared ad nauseum, Siakam huddling with his boys and rolling his eyes just before a game where he took over will be a calling card of his impact in so many ways this series, this season, and throughout his career.

Only the biggest dolts in the world cannot capitalize on this, as small as it may seem. It was EVERYWHERE I looked online since Thursday, and a silly photo will introduce Pascal and NM State to more fans.

Siakam was likely not a household name in 2019. I don’t know if he is 100% one now, but he’s a lot closer.

If the Pacers hoist the trophy up tomorrow and he is the Bill Russell Finals MVP, it will be a culmination of a journey that started a couple decades ago when a father sent his son down a path of learning and expectations, and Siakam, who is never one to shy away from a tough lesson, in fact see in that story I shared where he was getting beat up on the court by former Aggie Chili Nephawe almost every day which only made him work harder and you will get who Pascal really is.

As much as Aggies fans claim him rightfully so as our legend, and Toronto did as well for so many years post 2019, where his jersey was the preeminent jersey being worn in the Scotiabank Arena, Indiana who has not won an NBA title and last hoisted a championship trophy in 1973 when a former Lobo, Mel Daniels helped them win a title, will now claim Halliburton and Siakam as legends if they win Sunday night.

I want one of their warmup outfits…or the coach’s pants!

A lot is riding on this game. Aggies fans should be keenly aware of the stakes. I am aware!

Don’t led a convoluted third-hand story paint your thoughts on what could be a legend making performance tomorrow night. Pascal is your player. He will always be your player. Don’t believe the hype and just root as hard as you can for one of your own!

So many on social media are celebrating more than the people who knew him as a scrawny kid on the Pan Am court. I urge Aggies fans to become Pacers fans for just one night!

James

Ok, I will be back with more after Game 7, likely on Monday. Good luck, Indiana!