A lot happens each week with the Pacers and it’s not easy to stay on top of it. Introducing a new weekly feature, Pacers Last Week, which should help keep you up-to-date on all things Pacers.
- NBA unveiled the full schedule for the 2017-18 season. No team will play four games in five nights for the first time ever. The Pacers are on ESPN once, and have 14 sets of back-to-backs, slightly below the league average.
- Longtime assistant coach Dan Burke, who has been with the franchise since Larry Bird hired him in 1997, was overseas in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Netanya. It’s part of the NBA’s “Basketball Without Borders” initiative where coaches and executives help coach the top 62 boys and girls ages 17 and under.
- Damien Wilkins signed his one-year contract from the basketball offices inside the new St. Vincent Center.
- 2016 second-round pick Georges Niang reportedly agreed to a deal with Golden State to play for Santa Cruz, their G League team.
- Did you see this sweet coffee mug Glenn Robinson III used?
- On Wednesday, the Pacers announced their four-game preseason schedule. They’ll play just one home game, and it’s against Maccabi Haifa of Israel.
- Peter Dinwiddie, the team’s Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations, turned 40. Earlier this year, he was named to the Indianapolis Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 list.
- Rookie T.J. Leaf and Domantas Sabonis, who will be entering his second season in the league, attended the NBA’s Rookie Transition Program.
- Myles Turner fired the first pitch at a Texas Rangers game.
- Rakeem Christmas signed with a team in Turkey.
- Al Jefferson was voted “Teammate of the Year” by last year’s roster, the NBPA announced.
- The Atlantic-10 Conference hired Matt Doherty as the Associate Commissioner for men’s basketball. He had been a Pacers scout since the fall of 2012.
- Jared Bartling, an assistant video coordinator, got married in South Dakota.
- At the Pacers’ request, the NBA opened up a tampering investigation into the Los Angeles Lakers and Paul George. The team was upset with the whole process and see it as a foregone conclusion that PG will return home to L.A. next summer. This will be interesting, too, because it’s a little team taking on one of the storied franchises in The Association. (Remember this wink from Magic Johnson in April?)
- Cory Joseph celebrated his 26th birthday on Sunday. Quinn Buckner turned 63.
- The Indiana Fever — under a new head coach and after Tamika Catchings, the face of the franchise, retired — were knocked out of playoff contention. They had reached the postseason in each of the last 12 seasons, the second-longest streak in professional sports trailing only the San Antonio Spurs (20).
- Ex-Pacer point guard Jeff Teague and his family held the soft opening for “The Factory D1 Indy,” an all-purpose sports facility to train and develop. (Click here for their website.)
- Lastly, head athletic trainer Josh Corbeil will be completing an obstacle course in November with Tamika Catchings. As part of that, he’d like to raise at least $1,000 for his local library as his wife is currently serving as the president of the fundraising board. It’s currently at $560. Help him out.