{"id":663050,"date":"2026-05-11T03:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663050\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T03:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:13:10","slug":"pacers-kevin-pritchard-issues-apology-to-fans-after-nba-draft-lottery-result","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663050\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers\u2019 Kevin Pritchard Issues Apology to Fans After NBA Draft Lottery Result"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indiana Pacers<\/a> had a rough Sunday night. Their NBA<\/a> draft lottery pick landed at No. 5, which was one spot outside the top-four protection they needed to keep it. Just like that, the selection transferred to the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>, and a trade that was already unpopular around the league got a whole lot worse.<\/p>\n

The pick was part of the package Indiana sent to acquire center Ivica Zubac<\/a> at the trade deadline. The Pacers gave up Bennedict Mathurin<\/a>, Isaiah Jackson<\/a>, two first-round picks and a second-round pick to land him.<\/p>\n

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Those first-rounders were projected to convey in 2029 and 2031 but one of them just became the fifth overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, a far more expensive outcome than Indiana had bargained for.<\/p>\n

\"Indiana<\/p>\n

Indiana Pacers center Ivica Zubac against the Phoenix SunsTrevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Pacers president Kevin Pritchard didn’t wait long to address the fan base after the result came in.<\/p>\n

“I’m really sorry to all our fans. I own taking this risk. Surprised it came up 5th after this year. I thought we were due some luck,” Pritchard wrote on <\/a>X. “But please remember, this team deserved a starting center to compete with the best teams next year. We have always been resilient.”<\/p>\n

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What Drove Indiana to Make the Move<\/p>\n

The Pacers pushed for Zubac because Myles Turner<\/a> had departed in free agency, and they needed a legitimate starting center heading into next season. Zubac made sense on paper. He’s 29 years old, still in his prime, and earned second-team All-Defense recognition in 2025.<\/p>\n

The problem was timing. Tyrese Haliburton<\/a>‘s injury during the NBA Finals had already made this season a difficult one and most around the league expected Indiana to treat it as a rebuilding year. The Pacers went the other direction and made an aggressive move anyway. The lottery result Sunday made that decision look costly.<\/p>\n

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For the Clippers the night went a lot better. They now hold a top-five pick in a draft class that scouts have been high on for months. Names like AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer<\/a>, Caleb Wilson and Kingston Fleming are all in play at that spot.<\/p>\n

Indiana heads into the offseason without a lottery pick and with Pritchard’s apology still fresh. The Pacers have Zubac and they’re banking on him being worth it.<\/p>\n

Related: Shaquille O’Neal Faces Hilarious Punishment From Kevin Hart if Eagles Win NFC East<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on May 10, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indiana Pacers had a rough Sunday night. Their NBA draft lottery pick landed at No. 5, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,5644,22566,7221,5646,1172,320205,7236,183081,5648,590,85,12832,16319],"class_list":["post-663050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bennedict-mathurin","tag-cameron-boozer","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-isaiah-jackson","tag-ivica-zubac","tag-kevin-pritchard","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-lottery-pick","tag-myles-turner","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-the-pacers","tag-tyrese-haliburton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}