Latest news with #Dial
New York Times
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
My Teacher Is a Robot. Wait Till You Meet My Mom.
Two new graphic novels for kids feature alien beings that aren't what they seem. One is a monster disguised as a helper. The other is a monster that turns out not to be monstrous after all. In SCHOOLBOT 9000 (Dial, 288 pp., $14.99, ages 9 to 12), the first-time graphic novelist Sam Hepburn skewers artificial intelligence and the people hustling to sell it to us. Hepburn, a former tech writer, has built a near-future world full of robotic helpers that include taxi drivers, public safety officers, companions and pets. Just about everybody is awed by this shiny technology, burnished with retro design to appear friendly. But James, an 11-year-old with an artistic bent, prefers a more natural world. He got his skepticism from his father, who once told him that robots aren't 'just cold metal. They're cold — here,' and touched his heart. Dad has since died, and Mom has bought a HOMEBOT 3000 to help her manage the house and her busy career. As if a nattering robot at home weren't bad enough, James's school is taking part in a pilot program to introduce A.I. education via the SCHOOLBOT 9000. (Science-fiction-inclined parents will recognize the reference to HAL 9000, the murderous computer in '2001: A Space Odyssey.') Hepburn devotes loving attention to the ways in which human teachers connect with their students and give them confidence. By contrast, the A.I. educators ridicule the kids' artwork and music practice, even breaking one child's violin. 'Studies show that exposure to poor quality music is detrimental to brain structure, and may lead to cognitive and behavioral problems,' the SCHOOLBOT spouts. Cold indeed. They excel at some things. A lesson on Mesopotamia delivered by a human substitute teacher falls flat, so a SCHOOLBOT steps in with an impromptu rap: 'Stories and laws, math and much more, they inscribed it all, yeah, they built the core, in cuneiform script, forever they store! … Mesopotamia-mania! Feel the knowledge rain-ia!' The kids are entertained, but did they learn anything? Bit by bit, the budget-squeezed school kicks out the human teachers, which was the plan all along. The robots' big, evil manufacturer, Bux Global, is in cahoots with the paid-off mayor to make sure the pilot program succeeds at any cost. But the robots are glitchy, and the company's prejudices play out in the lessons. The arts and humanities are useless, one SCHOOLBOT contends: 'I am unable to find job descriptions that require specific knowledge of literary works such as 'Romeo and Juliet.'' They sort the kids into binary categories of tech work: 'creation' or 'maintenance.' The first group will be the programmers and designers; the others will keep the creations running. No reason to think about other professions, the robot sniffs: 'By the time you leave school, it is highly probable that your preferred job will already be performed by A.I.' Gee, it's almost as if Sam Altman were in the room. The students rebel. They enlist their parents. The SCHOOLBOT program is suspended. Freethinkers, rebels and techno-skeptics will find a lot to love here. Others might consider the book preachy and didactic. But tension builds again at the end as Bux Global performs an automatic software update on all its homebots: James's family's HOMEBOT 3000 suddenly reboots as the SCHOOLBOT Homeschooling System. Will the evil corporation take over education after all? And maybe the planet? Stay tuned: This is the first installment of a promised series. In DEEPLY DAVE (Holt, 240 pp., $14.99, ages 8 to 12), Michael Grover gives us a weird treat. Dave is a young explorer who's looking for his mother, an astronaut whose spaceship has gone missing in the depths of the ocean. (OK, that part doesn't really make sense. Keep going.) The delight of this book — a vertical rectangle bound at the top — is its format: Each flipped page takes you deeper, as if you're scrolling down a screen. That unusual design mimics the story's origins in the unfolding episodes of a webcomic (which in this case blinks and jitters, thanks to Grover's animation wizardry). Undersea creatures warn Dave that he's about to encounter 'the Big Doom.' He doesn't know what they're talking about, except that it's gigantic and powerful. But Dave isn't powerless. He's brought a pocketknife (which he shows to everyone he meets) and he makes friends along the way, including Amos, a shrimplike 'scavenger and entre-pruner' who's willing to help, in return for the quality seating inside Dave's mother's spaceship. (He craves a commode.) In a wry Freudian twist, the monster turns out to be … dun, dun, dun … Dave's mother, possessed by an alien creature she was studying — whom she inadvertently enraged by being callous about its egg. So the rescue mission gets a bit complicated, especially after an octopus, which used to be human, body-swaps with Dave to get its humanity back. Minds are melded. Bodies re-swap. The power of love saves the day. Ultimately, Dave's mother re-emerges, still gigantic but demonstrating a new empathy for the alien creature, with whom she's now fully symbiotic: 'She might be a cosmic being from another galaxy, and I might be an accomplished human astronaut … but at the end of the day we're just a couple of moms, trying to do right by our kids.'
Indianapolis Star
15-07-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
State champs and record breakers: Vote for Indiana high school boys athlete of the year
We are recognizing the top high school boys athletes for the 2024-25 sports season. You can vote for Indiana boys' athlete of the year, presented by the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, through noon Sunday. The senior Notre Dame commit was named the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Player of the Year after leading Andrean to a Class 3A state championship. Barth, a shortstop and pitcher, batted .528 for the season with three home runs and 27 RBIs, along with 50 runs scored, six doubles and four triples. As a pitcher, he went 5-0 with a 1.50 earned run average and 42 strikeouts with 18 walks in 28 innings. He closed out a 4-3 win over Jasper for the 3A title with a save. The junior finished second at the cross-country state meet in the fall with the seventh-fastest 5K time in the history of the state meet (14:51.5). At the track and field state meet, the Notre Dame commit set a state meet record in winning the 1,600 meters (4:02.60) and nearly set a record by winning the 3,200 (8:51.22). Expectations will be high for Bontrager going into his senior year. Cates, a senior diver, finished third at the state meet in 2023 and '24. But there was no stopping the SMU commit in 2025 as his score of 655.95 at the state meet shattered the state record set in 2001 by Hamilton Southeastern's Phillip Jones (623.90). Cates scored over a 600 in all of his tournament meets, punctuated by his performance at state. Dial, a senior, was named the Mental Attitude Award winner after helping Roncalli to the first IHSAA boys volleyball state championship this spring. Dial, who will attend Butler to double major in accounting and finance, had 53 assists in the semifinal win over Fishers and 38 in the championship against Cathedral, set school records for assists in a season (1,052), match (63) and a set (19). Dial was the 2024 IBVCA Tournament MVP. The senior quarterback was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in football after passing for 2,415 yards and 29 touchdowns in a 12-1 season for the Bulldogs, a Class 6A regional champion. The Miami of Ohio commit finished his high school career with 94 passing TDs. Ehrlich helped Crown Point to a 6A state finals appearance as a junior. The Indiana commit was named the Indiana Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior. The 6-3, 185-pound right-handed pitcher had six victories with a 0.76 earned run average and 61 strikeouts. He was drafted by the Phillies in the seventh round of July's MLB draft. Fisher was also a standout quarterback, completing 69% of his passes for 2,779 yards and 34 touchdowns as a senior. The junior hurdler ended his season with a splash, setting state meet records in the 110 hurdles (13.28 seconds) and 300 hurdles (35.82 seconds). Those times ranked third and second in the nation, respectively, for a high school hurdler. Hainje has only competed in the hurdles for a little more than a year. The senior Stanford football commit was a starter on Fishers' basketball teams as a junior and senior that went 59-2 over two seasons, winning a Class 4A state title in 2023-24 and finishing as runner-up this year. Hall averaged 11.5 points and 4.1 rebounds as a junior and 10.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists as a senior. On the football field, he helped Fishers to its first sectional title in eight years. He caught 91 passes for 1,423 yards and 12 TDs as a senior. Hall was also 10th at the state meet in the long jump after finishing runner-up as a junior. After three consecutive team runner-up finishes, Harvey fired a 9-under-par 135 over two days to match the lowest 36-hole individual score in the history of the state meet. The Purdue recruit led the Shamrocks to a state meet record 8-under-par 568 over two days and set the record for largest margin of victory (30 shots). Harvey was also named the Fred A. Keesling Mental Attitude Award winner. Kurwaza was named the Player of the Year by the Indiana High School Coaches Association and the Gatorade Player of the Year for Indiana. The Wisconsin commit and senior forward led the Irish to a 14-4-2 record as he scored 28 goals and accounted for 12 assists. Kurwaza helped the Irish to a Class 3A runner-up finish as a junior. He finished with 76 career goals and 46 assists. Lin finished off an undefeated 27-0 season by winning the state's individual state championship, becoming the first Columbus North tennis player to accomplish the feat. He was the runner-up at the state meet as a junior. Overall, Lin was 74-2 as an individual during his high school career. Mullins, a UConn commit, was voted IndyStar Mr. Basketball as a senior after averaging 32.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 3.7 steals as a senior, leading Greenfield-Central to a 23-4 record. He shot 47.6% (88-for-185) from the 3-point line. Mullins broke the school records for career points (2,158), single-season points (887) and single-game points (52). He was named the Gatorade Player of the Year and a McDonald's All American. Quagliaroli set a record on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course at the state meet in Terre Haute, winning the 5K state meet race with a time of 14 minutes, 46.81 seconds. He took second to Westview's Noah Bontrager in the 3,200 at the state meet this spring, finishing in 8:54.99. He will compete in college at Indiana. Weaver compiled a record of 103-1 as a junior and senior. He went 50-0 as a junior, winning the 190-pound title. Weaver moved up to the 215-pound weight class as a senior and won the state title again and was named the Mental Attitude Award winner. Weaver will wrestle in college at Purdue. Zackery, a Notre Dame football recruit, was voted Mr. Football after his senior season at Ben Davis. He caught 58 passes for 1,036 yards and 12 touchdowns as a senior and finished his career with 119 catches for 1,924 yards and 21 TD receptions. Zackery also intercepted 14 passes (eight as a senior), made 140 tackles, recovered four fumbles and scored four defensive TDs and helped the Giants to a Class 6A state title as a junior. Zackery also helped the Giants to a Class 4A state title in basketball as a sophomore. He averaged 11.0 points and 4.3 assists as a junior as the Giants reached the 4A state finals. Zackery was named an Indiana All-Star. IF POLL DOES NOT APPEAR, click here to vote.
Time of India
07-07-2025
- Climate
- Time of India
Rain slows response time of police's Dial 112 system in Nashik
Nashik: The Dial 112 system in Nashik experienced increased response times due to the rainfall that has been lashing the city since May. Response times rose from an average of 4.28 minutes in April to 5.28 minutes in May and 5.29 minutes in June. Traffic-related calls to the 112 system averaged over 160 in May and June, up from an average of 100 calls between Jan and April. Officials reported receiving more than 30,000 calls on Dial 112 from Jan to June. The Dial 112 service of the Maharashtra Police operates a fleet of 80 two-wheelers and four-wheelers in Nashik city. Each vehicle is equipped with a mobile data terminal (MDT) and GPS, allowing the police control room to monitor the response time for every call. Senior officers said their objective is to continually reduce response times. Compared to the response times from Jan to April, which ranged between 4.18 minutes and 4.29 minutes, there was an increase of approximately one minute in May and June. Nashik police commissioner Sandeep Karnik said, "We are continuously making efforts to improve the response time. No time is wasted by police teams once a caller connects with 112. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Is it legal? How to get Internet without paying a subscription? Techno Mag Learn More Undo The rain has affected the response time, but the endeavour is always to reach the incident spot at the earliest. " Showers typically lead to traffic congestion as commuters opt for cars over their regular bikes during inclement weather. Waterlogging causes motorists to navigate using dry patches to avoid potholes, reducing vehicular speed. This slowdown has consequently affected the response times of the 112 system. Between Jan 1 and June 30 this year, the Nashik city police attended to 31,677 calls. The majority of these (5,792) were related to assaults, while 757 were traffic complaints. Of the traffic complaints, 337, representing over 44%, occurred in May and June.
Indianapolis Star
22-06-2025
- Health
- Indianapolis Star
He wanted to live long enough to see Pacers win NBA title. He died day before Game 7 at 48
INDIANAPOLIS -- Former Indiana Pacers photographer Matt Dial, whose friends rallied around him as he battled Stage 4 colon cancer to get him one last night inside his beloved Gainbridge Fieldhouse, wanted to live long enough to see his team win its first NBA Finals. Dial died early Saturday morning at Life Journey Hospice, just one day short of the Pacers' Game 7 at Oklahoma City on Sunday night. He is survived by his wife, Shelley, and two sons Noah and Aaron. "At 2:54 am, Matty passed on from this life. I was humbled by the bravery of Aaron, who was there until the end. Pat and Gary (Dial's parents) were champions and provided so much support through all of their own pain," Shelley posted to Dial's Caring Bridge page. "I appreciate them so much. The end was so hard for us." Shelley called Dial the best husband, father, son, partner and friend. "He is missed by all who knew him," she wrote, "especially me." It was February 2023 when doctors finally discovered the reason Dial had been losing so much weight without trying, why he wasn't hungry. He had a cecal mass that had spread to his abdominal lymph nodes and his liver. When Dial was first diagnosed, he started planning trips with his family to make memories. Not fancy trips. Better than that. Trips to Tennessee to see the mountains and one to Branson, Missouri, known as "the live entertainment capital of the world," because of all those shows and theaters. But, in the past year, the pain from the cancer and everything that treatments had done to his body became, at times, unbearable. In late May, Dial's friends and an army of people came together to give Dial a chance to make one last, beautiful Pacers memory with his family at Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Dial felt well enough to make the trip from his Zionsville home to Gainbridge for that historic, electric Game 6. "He's not able to travel as much, and that's why this game was so important," said Noah. "Because I never thought I'd get that chance to go with him again." Those who knew Dial called him a kind, wickedly smart, self-proclaimed technology nerd, lover of the Pacers and even moreso lover of his family and friends. They were all fiercely hoping that Dial lived long enough to see his Pacers win an NBA title. "I was going to cry anyway (if they won it), but I would cry even more because, you know, he's been waiting for this. And he might not see another run," Dial's son Noah, 25, told IndyStar earlier this month. "When we get through this and we win the championship, it's going be a memory I'll always cherish." There will be no funeral for Dial, at his request, Shelley wrote. Just a party to celebrate him. "Thank you to all our friends and family who have stepped up so much in the last difficult weeks," Shelley wrote. "I love you."
Indianapolis Star
08-06-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
Dying at 48, former Pacers photographer wants to live long enough to see NBA title
INDIANAPOLIS -- Matt Dial stepped onto the court of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, raised a camera to his face, squinted his left eye and, through the lens, saw the blue and gold glory that used to flash in front of him as he photographed the Indiana Pacers. This night would be, without a medical miracle, the last time Dial walked into the hallowed halls of the arena he has always loved so much. His friends and an army of people came together last week to give Dial a chance to make one last, beautiful Pacers memory with his family at Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The man they saw in the photos, taken as the Pacers clinched a spot in the NBA Finals, made them smile. And those photos made them cry, too. Dial is 30 pounds lighter than he was just weeks ago. The nutrition he puts into his body isn't helping. Instead, it's feeding his terminal colon cancer. He has stopped chemotherapy and hospice has come into his home to make him as comfortable as they can. Much of the time, Dial is sleeping. But somehow, some way, Dial felt well enough to make the trip from his Zionsville home to Gainbridge last week for that historic, electric Game 6. And everyone who knows Dial, a kind, wickedly smart, self-proclaimed technology nerd, lover of the Pacers and even moreso lover of his family and friends, are hoping fiercely that Dial lives long enough to see his beloved Pacers win an NBA title for the first time in history. Even if it is from a hospital bed. Dial, 48, has had time to come to terms with the hand he's been dealt, a diagnosis that came in February 2023 when doctors said his cancer was Stage 4 and gave him two years to live. He's gotten two years and four months to come to terms with it. Dial has planned everything out for his family, down to making sure his youngest son, 15-year-old Aaron, knows how to mow the yard and trim the weeds after he's gone. He recruited his good friend Todd Parrish to give Aaron driving lessons. He bought a guitar so he could learn to play with his oldest son, Noah. He traded his BMW for a Tesla -- even though he is a BMW fanatic who was president of the local club until he couldn't be anymore -- so that his wife, Shelley, wouldn't have a car payment after he's gone. "He's been spending the last two years setting up their life," said Parrish, "knowing that eventually it's going to get him." And so Dial is realistic, if not the eternal optimist he has always been. His friend Marc Lebryk says Dial would love to live long enough to take Shelley on one last, romantic, fabulous trip to see the Backstreet Boys in Las Vegas at The Sphere in July. He has the tickets, though no one is sure he would be able to make that trip. If not that, Dial wants to live long enough to see the Pacers win a title. "I was going to cry anyway (if they won it), but I would cry even more because, you know, he's been waiting for this. And he might not see another run," said Dial's son, Noah, 25. "When we get through this and we win the championship, it's going be a memory I'll always cherish." A memory, Noah says, that may be about basketball. But it is so much more. From the time Noah was tiny, he heard the magical stories from his dad who had a literal front row, on-court spot for the Indiana Pacers as a photographer for the Indianapolis Star. But Dial was one of those photographers who had a hard time hiding his team loyalty, said his former boss at IndyStar, Mike Fender. "If it was Colts or Pacers, he would drop anything to be involved with a project, and he was always rooting for the Pacers or rooting for the Colts and we're trying to be kind of neutral on the sidelines," said Fender, who calls Dial a "MacGyver" of the digital era of photography. "But being able to shoot, it got him an inside seat to a lot of big games." Once home from those games, Dial couldn't stop talking about his teams, especially the Pacers. "He was always shooting games and editing photos," said Noah. "He always talks about a lot of the legendary moments he's gotten to see." Like the wonderful ones. Dial was there for Reggie Miller's retirement ceremony in April 2005 and captured an emotional photo of Miller embracing his sister, Cheryl Miller, on court. And the awful ones (for a Pacers fan). Dial was there for Game 2 of the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals when the Pistons' Tayshaun Prince blocked Miller's shot in what has been called one of the greatest defensive moves in playoff history. "But he found time and he got to take me to my first game," Noah said. "From that point on, we had a lot of teams that weren't always the best, but it was important to keep rooting." Rooting for the Pacers, that has always been Noah and his dad's thing. If only his dad were really here to enjoy what is happening with the Pacers now, up 1-0 in the Finals after stealing Game 1 in Oklahoma City. Screaming and yelling at the television, wearing his favorite jersey. It was February 2023 when doctors finally discovered the reason Dial had been losing so much weight without trying, why his appetite wasn't its usual robust self, going for Mexican food anytime he could get it. He had a cecal mass that had spread to his abdominal lymph nodes and his liver. Noah was on a work trip at the time, and Dial and Shelley didn't want to tell him while he was away, so they waited until he got home. That was Feb. 14. "It was kind of a rough day, of course. Valentine's Day isn't really a good day for me because of that. It's just a ... it's a hard memory," Noah said, "when I learned about it and it turned out that it was Stage 4 cancer." That's why Game 6 "was one of the greatest nights of my life," Noah said. Parrish worked around the clock to secure tickets. Dial's current employer, IU Health, where he works in visual media, offered the entire family seats in their suite. For Dial, it was more than he could have ever dreamed of. When Dial was first diagnosed, he started planning trips with his family to make memories. Not fancy trips. Better than that. Trips to Tennessee to see the mountains and one to Branson, Missouri, known as "the live entertainment capital of the world," because of all those shows and theaters. But, in the past year, the pain from the cancer and everything that treatments have done to his body, has become at times unbearable. "He's not able to travel as much, and that's why this game was so important," said Noah. "Because I never thought I'd get that chance to go with him again." Dial's love of the Pacers comes honestly. He grew up in Indianapolis an avid sports fan, so any team that belonged to Indiana was his team, too. But Dial wasn't your typical jock. He was brilliant. Sam Riche was watching Game 1 of the Finals on Thursday when an analyst called the Pacers the "ultimate problem solvers." Riche, who is Dial's boss at IU Health, immediately thought of him. "He is the most Incredible problem solver I think I've met. If you put a problem before him, he can solve it," Riche said. "And he is relentless in pursuit of solving it." The first live stream for Gannett, which owns newspapers across the country, was on because of Dial. Riche, who worked for IndyStar at the time, was on his way to Bloomington to film and photograph IU basketball coach Kelvin Sampson getting fired at a press conference. "And on my way, Matt called me and says, 'Hey, I think I figured out how to live stream this. Let's see if we can make it work,'" said Riche. "And we did." Dial's best childhood friend, Dave Galante, has witnessed the genius of Dial for decades. As a student at Fulton Junior High, Dial signed up for a Latin class. No one took Latin unless they wanted to be in misery. That's where Galante first met Dial. They bonded over their love of technology and tennis and then headed off to Ben Davis together. In high school in the early 1990s, Dial became a bit obsessed with hip hop and rap. He was always at Karma Records buying up the latest cassette decks to jam in his car. He was especially enamored with the duo Kid n' Play and, one day, Dial decided he wanted hair like band member Christopher Reid. "He wanted like a cube, kind of like frizzy hair look, and so he got a perm," Galante said, laughing at the memory. Galante, Dial and their friend group, which included Kyle Jones, Jeremy Klinger and Peter Chen, were always hanging out. Galante didn't know much about basketball until he met Dial, who was deep into the Miller era of the Pacers, their 1990s runs to the playoffs and their hatred of the New York Knicks. Jones happened to have a basketball court in his backyard, and Dial was always trying to dunk. One day, much to the elation and shock of his friends, he did. He actually, truly dunked on what Galante is pretty sure was a regulation goal. Through the years, that group of friends remained close and kept a group chat going. Not long before Dial's diagnosis, when they were all hitting birthday No. 45, they started talking about getting their colonoscopies. "That's what you do when you're 45," Galante said. "And we were just all saying, 'We're really busy and we don't want to do this, but we kind of have to.'" Dial chimed in. He was going to get his colonoscopy soon, he told them, but hadn't been feeling well. He was having digestive issues. "And, unfortunately, the colon cancer actually started to take root," said Galante, "before he was even able to get a screening." In true Dial fashion, the problem solver extraordinaire, he dove into the subject of Stage 4 colon cancer. It was not a subject he wanted to be a part of, but he was. He reached out to oncologists around the country, connecting them with his IU Health doctors. Shelley and he started documenting his journey on a CaringBridge page, simply titled "Stage IV at 46." The posts are raw and real. But they are also full of hope. And the Dials had a lot of hope, until recently. "Matt tried to have chemo again, but his body is just too weak to handle it. He has what is called cancer cachexia, which is a kind of wasting away that happens when the cancer takes over your metabolism," Shelley wrote on May 25. "He has lost weight very rapidly and has no appetite. From what the oncologist has told us, it doesn't matter if he eats; he is not nourishing his body, just feeding the cancer. "He feels there is a very short time left." Parrish immediately knew what he had to do. He had to get Dial inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse to see his Pacers one more time. On May 26, Parrish put a callout for help in a Facebook message to Dial's friends and former coworkers at IndyStar. "Matt Dial is in the last throes of his battle with cancer. He's literally on days, maybe weeks of life," Parrish wrote. "I am reaching out as I have been trying to get him to a Pacers game in a suite. Matt is an enormous Pacers fan and had been going to the games until he could no more. I want to give my good friend and his wife a great, last memory." Parrish, who worked for years with Dial at IndyStar and IU Health, could tell he was going downhill. Then one night, not long ago, Dial told him, "There's not much time left." "It really had a huge impact because we had been going along for about two years, and we could see the changes in him but, at the same time, it was one of those, 'Maybe we got a couple of months, maybe we can stretch it out a year,'" said Parrish. "But that night, he made it well known. And that really upset us a ton. I couldn't get it out of my head." How it all came to be that Dial was sitting in an IU Health suite for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals on May 31, watching the Pacers secure a spot for the first time in 25 years to the NBA Finals, was a series of twists, turns, dozens of good-hearted people and a bit of good fortune. "We all think the world of Matt," IU Health's Monique Haboush told Parrish, "and this has been a labor of love." With the help of Parrish, friends, IU Health and the Pacers, the Dial family was picked up and driven to the fieldhouse so they could access the VIP entrance directly to the suites. The family was taken down to the floor tp watch warm ups. They saw Miller, Shaquille O'Neal and Ernie Johnson from TNT, who came over and introduced himself. Matt Kryger, the Pacers photographer, had Obi Toppin come over for a photo with Dial, who had been given a signed Toppin jersey to wear for the game. It was a magical night. After Game 6, for the next two days, Dial slept. He was tired, Shelley said, and he was sore. "But the memories," she wrote, "are worth it." "Matt is such a good guy, and he deserves all the attention he can get. He's put up a huge fight for this thing," said Fender. "I think we all were hopeful that, and we still are, we're hopeful for a miracle." But if not for that miracle, they're hopeful that the Pacers can win their first championship ring, sooner rather than later. With Dial watching. Get IndyStar's Pacers coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Pacers Update newsletter
