Exits: A summer spent at home
In extending Pascal Siakam and making their moves mid-season, the Pacers will stay out of the NBA's Dionysian summer. That can be a good thing.
In Indianapolis, a snow storm. It started fast and accumulated quick. By the time I made it from the airport to my hotel I could barely make out the other buildings around it. By the time I checked in, unpacked, and set back out for Day 1 of my NBA All-Star Weekend docket there was enough accumulation that people and cars were sliding.
I walked slow to the Convention Center. The snow felt like occasion snow, the kind you don’t mind right away because it adds to the mood. All weekend I heard complaints about why All-Stars should only be in warm weather cities, but the complaints, as people shook snow off their hats and jackets stepping indoors or went trepedatious through snowy then slushy then icy streets, came with bright eyes, smiles.
In the Convention Center I got lost. Went the wrong way down a very long hallway thanks to some confusing directions. By the time I picked up my credentials I had to go. Took a ride down several long, snowy blocks to a private podcast taping with Shaq and Allen Iverson. They hadn’t shown up yet when I got there, but Taylor and Holland had. We’d planned to eat the complimentary food and have a complimentary drink, watch the show, chat with their colleague Shaq, but were shushed early and often as the host, stalling, made recorded small talk with other people.
I had to leave. Back to the Convention Center for an interview with Myles Turner. Taylor, Holland and I made plans to meet up later, but the unspoken rule at NBA weekends is that every plan, however best laid or heartfelt, is tentative. I apologized to the people who wanted me to talk to Shaq (I did want to talk to Shaq). Outside, my phone, screen useless in seconds from the snow that melted on it, told me a car would take 40 minutes to pick me up then travel back the several long blocks. A walk would take 10. I walked. Mostly with my head down because the snow thickened and was blowing right at me. By the time I made it to the Convention Center floor and found the rep — the most patient, smiling people who I do not begrudge at all for their work and who I make a point to thank three times as much as I need to — who would take me to Turner, I was soaked. Had at least dried my bangs under the hand dryer in the bathroom.
Turner was gracious. Did I just come from outside? I had. This was a lot, he assured me, more than usual. We talked about all the events he’d already done leading up to the weekend, mostly community causes, how many more he would do. He was energized. We talked about Pascal Siakam, the trade so fresh then, barely three weeks post. I realized it almost in real time, as Turner gave me good sport hypotheticals, that all he could say about it was still a plan. Best laid, heartfelt, but likely the same line of thinking the Pacers coaching staff was telling the team. Here’s how it’s going to work, because they couldn’t yet know if it was.
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