It's one of the oddest streaks in the NBA, the type of factoid that doesn't seem believable at first and might even prompt some to try to disprove it. But after 33 years, it's about to come to an end.
On Tuesday at the NBA draft lottery, the Indiana Pacers are guaranteed to get their first draft pick inside the top 10 since 1989. That's not a typo. It hasn't happened in any of the current Pacers players' lifetimes.
George McCloud is that trivia answer of who the last one was; he was drafted fourth, a year after the Pacers selected Rik Smits with the No. 2 overall pick in 1988.
More than three decades later, the Pacers' 2021-22 season was ravaged with injuries, players missing nearly 400 games combined. Forward T.J. Warren sat out the entire season and key players Myles Turner, Malcolm Brogdon and Chris Duarte missed huge chunks. The Pacers won 25 games -- their lowest total since 1984-85.
They will enter Tuesday with the fifth-highest odds -- 10.5% -- of winning the top pick. In total, they have a 42% chance of moving up to one of the top four picks and can't fall lower than ninth.
"It's an exciting opportunity," said Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard. "We all know the significance of a top pick."
In an era when tanking for high picks is routine, the Pacers have always resisted -- a directive from owner Herb Simon (and late co-owner Mel Simon, who died in 2009), who feels winning as many games as possible sets a standard and is good for business.
"We are not a franchise that is going to dump to get a better pick. We're going to try to win every game," Simon said to reporters in December. "Sometimes we'll develop rookie players, which may cost us a game, but we're never going to go into a game to lose while I'm an owner. I don't believe in it. Some teams do, but I don't believe in that.
"Maybe I'm making [a mistake], maybe I should, but I can't think like that."
Good karma hasn't followed this philosophy. The Pacers have had little pingpong-ball luck in the past three decades, though they've been in the lottery only eight times.
After the two top-five picks in the late 1980s, the Pacers made the playoffs in 16 of the next 17 seasons.
The highest pick they've had in the past 25 years was No. 10 twice; in 2010 they took future All-NBA player Paul George; and in 1996 they took Erick Dampier. In 2015 they had the 11th pick and landed Turner, their current franchise center. They remained competitive over the years by drafting All-Stars with selections such as Danny Granger and Roy Hibbert, who were both drafted with the 17th pick. In 2011 they drafted Kawhi Leonard with the 15th pick, part of a prearranged trade with the San Antonio Spurs.
on this day in 1988, we used the No. 2 pick to make Rik Smits a Pacer pic.twitter.com/mTOWqNv5fu
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) June 29, 2021
"We can have a good team and get better rather than break it up to get better," Simon said. "As a fan, I don't want to do that. And I don't believe our fans deserve to see a team that's purposely losing. I don't ever want to be accused of that."
The Pacers did reposition during this past season, trading away All-Star Domantas Sabonis and veterans Caris LeVert and Torrey Craig for promising young guard Tyrese Haliburton, shooter Buddy Hield, prospect Jalen Smith and multiple draft picks. The youth, plus the injuries, led to a 10-game losing streak to finish the season, putting Indiana in position to get a top pick.
Being in the middle, where the Pacers have been for much of the past three decades, isn't a trend many teams embrace. But Indiana will stick to Simon's edict and hope to make this high pick an anomaly.
Assistant general manager Kelly Krauskopf will be on stage for the show, while general manager Chad Buchanan will be in the sealed room where the lottery takes place, hoping to see the team break its decades-long drought.
"Not making the playoffs is tough," Pritchard said. "But we have cap space, multiple picks and some young players we like. We feel good about where we are."