Doyel: Was NBA Draft lottery result a crime against Pacers – or the verdict on Zubac trade?

The 2026 NBA Draft lottery is over, and the Indiana Pacers have been wronged. That’s beyond debate. Here’s the question: They were wronged … when?

And … by whom? Some, including me, see the Pacers as having been wronged Sunday by a lottery process that would allow the team with the second-worst record in the NBA, a team that had two seasons gutted by the same injury to Tyrese Haliburton – Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, and this past season that he missed – to fall out of the top four of the lottery… which means losing their 2026 first-round pick in that February trade for Clippers center Ivica Zubac. As I wrote Sunday, a 1,400-word piece of fury written in the Orlando airport during a 90-minute layover after a family trip, “The Pacers get nothing in NBA Draft lottery … and it's not right.

” Others, meaning some of you, see Sunday’s lottery result not as the crime here – but as the verdict on that Zubac trade: That the Pacers were wronged in February by team president Kevin Pritchard for negotiating a deal that allowed this to happen. (For those who don’t know, the crux of that complicated Clippers-Pacers trade was this: The Pacers acquired Zubac for Bennedict Mathurin and several draft picks, including Indiana’s 2026 first-rounder if – and only if – the pick fell outside the top four. Now we know, it was outside the top four.

And folks are shouting: Guilty ! ) Where do you fall? Judging from the reaction by members of my IndyStar text group – more than 3,000 have signed up, it’s free, so join us at the link below any of my online columns!