Hoops Hobby

The Pacers closed out a dreadful season that was tough to watch, lost the number 5 pick in the draft, and yet I’m as excited about the team as I’ve ever been. While waiting for next season, let’s continue to look back as players from the team’s history, in the context of my Pacers autograph collection.

I’m attempting to collect an autograph, preferably on a card, for every Pacers player to ever appear in a regular season game for the team.

In this post, I’ll talk about 20 players to complete the Letter ‘M’.

Autographs of Pacers with Last Name starting with ‘M’ – 20 of 40, 50% Complete

I’m going to start with the players I have autographs for from the last 20 alphabetically.

Josh McRoberts – I would consider McRoberts a fan favorite, came in with lots of energy, the occasional pump-up-the-crowd dunk, could shoot the 3-ball OK. His time with the Pacers was during an overall unenjoyable period with Jim O’Brien as head coach.

McRoberts was a McDonald’s All-American, a Carmel, Indiana product, so even as a Pacers fan I probably don’t understand the level of hype that he had entering his time at Duke. Ultimately McRoberts was a second round pick for the Blazers in the 2007 NBA Draft.

The Pacers added McRoberts in a draft night trade in 2008 where they also drafted Brandon Rush and received Jarrett Jack from Portland. I would say the trade worked out in the Pacers favor, as Jared Bayless, the prize going to Portland, didn’t achieve all-star status and while solid, moved around to 8 different teams in his career.

While I would like to have a Pacers card for McRoberts in my autograph binder, I traded for a 2007-08 Topps Chrome gold refractor rookie autograph back when the Pacers first acquired him. His only certified Pacers autograph cards are in 2009-10 SP Game Used, with a fairly underwhelming design on his card in my opinion. 2009-10 Upper Deck Signature Collection might also be an option but I can’t find this one for sale or even an image of it. I do have other Pacers from that set so there would be some continuity there.

Ron Mercer – I’ve mentioned on my Instagram feed before, and on the blog as well, that I obtained several in person autographs at a Pacers/Hawks game in Atlanta during the 2002-03 season on a trip with my dad. I had cards signed by Jermaine O’Neal, Al Harrington, and this 2001-02 Topps TCC Ron Mercer. These cards all are very special to me.

Mercer was nearly a 20 points per game scorer for the Bulls during the 2000-01 season. He was part of the trade that sent Jalen Rose and Travis Best to the Bulls with Brad Miller and Ron Artest accompanying Mercer to the Pacers.

C.J. Miles – C.J. Miles had a long, solid career with seven different franchises. His time with the Pacers was filled with 3 pointers as part of the Jim O’Brien era of take the first 3 you see, leading to career highs in both 3 pt attempts and makes at that point in his career.

Even though the JOB era wasn’t fun, I did come away a fan of Miles.

I like the Optic brand more than Prizm and Select, in general, because of the in-game photography, and so I chose an Optic Holo here.

Brad Miller – I’m a Brad Miller fan. Came in as the Pacers ascended back to relevance quickly with a ‘retool’ following the teams first (love saying that rather than ‘only’) finals appearance in 2000. Served as the starting center for several early 2000s seasons. He could stretch the floor a bit and was a great complement to Jermaine O’Neal.

Ultimately was traded to the Kings for Scot Pollard in a cost saving measure to avoid paying the luxury tax.

I shared my Brad Miller entry in my autograph binder on Instagram fairly recently (not that recently, in October 2025), a COMC pickup to replace a 99-00 Skybox Autographics card with Miller in a Hornets uniform. While I prefer the Autographics brand, ultimately this Contenders autograph is preferred because of Brad Miller being in a Pacers jersey.

Reggie Miller – I’ve been on the lookout for the right certified autograph card for Reggie lately, and I’ve unfortunately long missed any chance to get one at a bargain price. Ideally I would pick up an Autographics card. In the meantime, I will keep an autograph card that I received as a gift from a family member that has a COA. I should really get it authenticated by JSA when it makes sense to, but I’m content with it in my binder for now, especially since it was a gift years ago.

Terry Mills – A backup big man post-Finals run, Mills signed for me last year on a 2000-01 Fleer Triple Crown base card and I couldn’t be happier about it. I absolutely love it when I can obtain a Pacers autograph card for players who only spend a short time with the team.

Fun fact- Mills is the nephew of former fellow Pacer and Piston John Long. Terry Mills had a long and successful career, primarily as a starter and then key bench contributor for the Pistons. He played just 14 games for the Pacers at the end of his NBA career, during the 2000-01 season.

Sam Mitchell – Michell played for the Pacers in the early-mid 90s, both before and after stints with the Timberwolves.

He immediately moved into coaching following his playing career, starting as an assistant with Milwaukee before becoming the head coach of the Raptors in 2004, where he was the 2007 NBA Coach of the year. He’s working as part of the NBA media in his post-playing career, in both radio and TV.

I recently received a TTM autograph from Mitchell on a 1995-96 Fleer base card. This card replaced an Autographics certified auto in the autograph project binder, because a card with a Pacers jersey always ranks higher than a non-Pacers card.

Rick Mount – Mount is a fantastic TTM signer, a former Indiana Mr. Basketball, a Purdue alumnus (3x All-American) and 70s ABA Pacer. One part about this autograph project is the variety of sets I am able to include. These 70s sets are absolute gems, and 1971-72 Topps might be my favorite.

In his Junior season at Purdue, Mount helped his team to the NCAA Tournament Final, along with future Pacer teammate, Billy Keller. They lost to UCLA in the Finals led by Lew Alcindor.

Rick started 50 games for the 1972 ABA Champion Pacers. His last career season was his highest points per game average at over 17 points per game while playing for the Memphis Sounds.

Chris Mullin – I remember being just absolutely stunned and excited when the Pacers added an established All-Star and sharpshooter in Mullin back in the late 90s. It’s been fun to collect his Pacers cards over the years as part of some team sets, including a card in the 2000-01 Gold Label game jersey set featuring NBA Finals worn jersey swatches.

In searching out a Mullin autograph in a Pacers jersey, a card with the lineage of Sign of the Times made a lot of sense for my collection. I really enjoy the overhead shot on this photo, and the die-cut element of 1997-98 Sign of the Times.

Troy Murphy – A 3-pt shooting big man, he was one of the most important players in the Pacers post-Artest trade and in the Danny Granger era. I know many Pacers fans don’t look back fondly on Murphy, Dunleavy, and the Jim O’Brien era, and it wasn’t all fun during those years. However, if I’m going to cheer for the team, I am going to collect whoever is on the roster at any given time to some degree. I have more Dunleavy and Murphy cards than I probably should, and many aren’t even Pacers cards. Lots of Warriors rookies, etc. Murphy and Dunleavy are in a lot of fun sets from 2001-2003 and at the time it was hard for me to not go out and grab rookies from those years from sets I was very fond of. And like I said, I’m a Pacers fan, so I pulled hard for Troy Murphy. I named my corgi puppy, Murphy, a pretty good name for a dog if you ask me.

Getting around to the card, to my knowledge, Murphy doesn’t have any certified Pacers autos, so a Warriors certified auto appears in the binder, a rookie year card, Fleer Fresh Ink.

Certified Non-Pacers Autographs

Trey McKinney-Jones – I don’t own a Jones autograph, but I do own a few cards to hopefully get signed down the line. One is from a Japanese league set for the B.League, where Jones continues to play today with the Gumma Crane Thunders. He has an autograph on the checklist but I’ve never seen one appear online.

I also own a card from a set for the 15th anniversary of the Mad Ants. Glad to own a card of his where you can see a Pacers logo.

I remember Jones from his time in college at Miami. He also played on the 2018 USA World Cup Qualifying team.

Monte Morris – Morris spent six games with the Pacers earlier this season when the team needed some point guard depth because of injuries. I’ve always liked Morris as a solid backup guard, but the Pacers have those, particularly at the point, when healthy.

I would like to think some of these players who’ve appeared for the Pacers on hardship deals and 10-day contracts, like Garrison Matthews, Cody Martin, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, and Monte Morris will have Pacers cards in a Topps Update product, but it’s probably wishful thinking. (I wrote that months ago and this is clearly not happening- Topps Chrome Update is out and none of these guys appear)

Morris appears in plenty of autograph sets, but my top choice as of now would be a 2017-18 rookie year Hoops Checkerboard auto. It’s a Nuggets card, but I’m a fan.

Players with Pacers Cards

No players with Pacers cards left that I don’t already have an autograph for.

Players with Non-Pacers Cards

Keith McLeod -I mentioned Troy Murphy, who was a part of the large trade of Al Harrington and Stephen Jackson to the Warriors for Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, and Ike Diogu. Well McLeod was the 4th player acquired by the Pacers in that deal. He played in 22 games, starting 7 for the Pacers during the 2006-07 season.

McLeod’s best seasons statistically came with the Utah Jazz in 2004-05 and 2005-06, where he started 79 games across those two seasons. By the end of the 2005-06 season, top 5 draft pick Deron Williams had taken over as the starting point guard.

When looking at box scores from those Jazz teams, something stuck out to me. Greg Ostertag stuck around with the Jazz for a very long time. He started 22 games for that 2005-06 Jazz team as well, after being a starting center for 90s Jazz teams that went on many deep playoff runs.

McLeod appears on a good number of sets with the Timberwolves and Jazz, including 2005-06 Topps Total and 2005-06 Topps. No Pacers cards though.

Naz Mitrou-Long –

Naz is in several Panini Euroleague sets from 2023-24, and the cards honestly look great. My favorite is a Crown Royale die-cut. He does not appear to have any autograph cards in these sets.

He played in 20 NBA games, 15 for the Jazz and 5 for the Pacers. He spent time with the Mad Ants between 2019 and 2021 as well.

Since his time with the Pacers, he’s played with professional teams in Italy, Lithuania, and Greece.

Ben Moore – While this card isn’t listed in his inventory on TCDB.com, I added this card from his time with the Mad Ants awhile back off eBay with the hope of one day getting it signed.

Moore appeared in 2 games for the Pacers in early 2018 and also played professionally in Turkey, Israel, Australia, Puerto Rico and Greece.

Richard Morton – The Cal State Fullerton point guard appeared for the Pacers in 3 games during the 1988-89 season. He played for a handful of teams in the CBA (Continental Basketball Association) and was a two-time CBA All-Star.

Ronald ‘Flip’ Murray – Murray was the Division 2 player of the year before getting drafted by the Bucks in 2002. He played for a number of teams during the NBA portion of his career, but he spent the most time with the Sonics and with the Pistons. With the Sonics he was a primary guard off the bench, and he competed in the Rookie Challenge during All-Star Weekend in 2004.

Murray signed with the Pacers mid-season in 2008, playing a key role off the bench, averaging close to 23 minutes per game and over 11 points per game.

Murray appears in many of my favorite sets, the most of which were in 2004-05 in a Sonics uniform. Despite having over 275 different cards, he doesn’t appear in a Pacers uniform in any of them. He didn’t have any cards in 2008-09, which would have been when he may have appeared as a Pacer. He showed up again in 2009-10 Panini and Topps as a member of the Hawks.

Players with No Cards

Dick Miller – Miller played for the Pacers for 5 games during the 1980 season after being drafted in the 2nd round.

Post NBA, the Toledo product played in other professional leagues in the US and Spain.

He helped Toledo to an upset win of Iowa as they went to the Sweet 16 in 1980.

Miller passed away in 2014.

Jay Miller – Played for several NBA franchises starting in Atlanta in 1967 before finishing his career with the ABA Pacers during the 1970-71 season.

Post basketball, Miller worked as an FBI agent for 30 years, a career path that I would expect to be pretty rare for a professional athlete in any era, and rare for anyone, for that matter. Would like to know more about what led him there post Notre Dame and basketball.

Miller passed away in 2001.

Guy Morgan – Morgan was drafted in the 2nd round in 1982 by the Pacers out of Wake Forest. He played eight games for the Pacers.

Morgan was a McDonald’s All-American, playing high school basketball in Virginia Beach, VA.

After this post I’ve covered close to 250 Pacers. Looking forward to more!