As the first day of the NBA's planned schedule release came to a close on Tuesday, the Indiana Pacers found themselves no closer to knowing who they would be facing, when they would be facing them, or whether they would be facing them at home at Gainbridge Fieldhouse or elsewhere in the US and Canada.
No, the Pacers were completely left off of opening day, Christmas Day, and any of the other announced days. Not only that, they will not be playing a nationally televised game throughout the entirety of that beautiful first week of the season we're all longing for.
Indiana, despite being in the Finals just a season ago and featuring a fantastic lineup headed by a returning star orchestrator, is not seen as a box office attraction anymore.
That's a sad thing to see.
The Pacers deserve (and demand) to be seen
While Pacers fans certainly will show up to watch their team return to their winning ways (hopefully), a team featuring Tyrese Haliburton should be appointment viewing. He doesn't win in the way the NBA's brightest faces do, but he does produce some of the most fun basketball on the planet.
His story is the most inspiring and exciting in this group. With a healthy Haliburton, the Pacers can return to contention. If he cannot, the team is functionally dead in the gutter, hoping they can effectively pivot to a youth movement.
He will get all the blame if this season goes down in flames.
He shouldn't. But he also should not get all the credit if he returns to form.
Rick Carlisle should be a topic of conversation as well. Coaches don't often get much of the spotlight, but Carlisle is seeking to exorcise demons he thought he defeated 15 years ago in Dallas.
Down the roster, you have a position battle between two draft-mates, one taken top-10, another taken late in the first round, now on the same standing, fighting for their careers just three years after their dreams came true.
Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard's Pacers tenures hang by a thread and the only way to claw their ways up is to win the ninth man role.
Pascal Siakam and Ivica Zubac, two of the most baffling developmental stories that produced two of the most underrated players in the league today, will pair for a full season after only getting a handful of games together in 2026-27.
Even if you ignore individual stories, the Pacers will seek to do something many dream about and few can do and leave the lottery after just one year there. They are fighting the blueprint of the slow circling of the drain that decaying teams do.
This Pacers team is not as boring as they are on their 19-win surface. They are an insight into every single archetype of drama the NBA has to offer.
To leave them waiting for table scraps during schedule release week is a massive, massive failure.
We don't know when the Pacers' schedule will go live, but when it does, it will show 82 games that should have been prioritized. And at least 20 of them that will be flexed to primetime.
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