Kevin Pritchard did not hide behind front-office fog. He did not dress the loss up in corporate oatmeal. After the Pacers watched their 2026 first-round pick land fifth and immediately convey to the Clippers, Indiana’s president of basketball operations stepped forward and took the hit.
“I’m really sorry to all our fans. I own taking this risk,” Pritchard said, after a lottery night that turned into the basketball version of stepping on a rake. “Surprised it came up 5th after this year. I thought we were due some luck. But please remember – this team deserved a starting center to compete with the best teams next year. We have always been resilient.”
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. But please remember – this team deserved a starting center to compete with the best teams next year. We have always been resilient.
— Kevin Pritchard (@PacersKev) May 10, 2026
Our President of Basketball Operations, Kevin Pritchard, spoke with the media after today’s Draft Lottery in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/b0P1B3aIlU
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 10, 2026
The context is brutal. Indiana’s pick was top-four protected after the trade that brought Ivica Zubac to the Pacers. Had the lottery balls placed it anywhere from No. 1 to No. 4, Indiana would have kept it. Instead, it landed at No. 5 – the worst possible outcome – and went to the Clippers. The Pacers entered the lottery hoping for a franchise-level consolation prize after a 19-63 season. They left without a first-round pick.
A result that makes fans invent new swear words.
But Pritchard’s explanation is also the tension of the job. The Pacers did not make the move in a vacuum. They wanted a starting center, wanted to compete, wanted to give the roster a real chance next season. Front offices are paid to make uncomfortable bets. This one simply landed one slot outside the safety net, which is somehow more painful than missing by ten. It was not just bad luck. It was cinematic bad luck… just add sad piano music and a zoom-in on a ping-pong ball.
Now Indiana has to sell resilience, and not as a slogan. The Pacers still have Tyrese Haliburton as the centerpiece, still have a roster to reshape, and still have the burden of proving that the Zubac gamble was more than an expensive lesson in lottery cruelty. The problem is that losing the fifth pick in a strong draft class is not a paper cut. It is a headline wound.
Pritchard owned it. That matters. It does not give the pick back, and it will not soothe a fan base that just watched hope get forwarded to Los Angeles. But it is at least honest.
In the NBA, sometimes you make the right bet for the wrong year. Sometimes you make the wrong bet and call it timing. And sometimes the lottery machine looks you straight in the face and says: fifth.
Indiana got fifth.
The Clippers got the pick.
