Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark arrived late Tuesday morning, went straight to hair/makeup and then participated in a Women’s Leadership Summit. She hasn’t had time to hit the range or even check out the course just yet, but she is looking forward to her special opportunity on Wednesday.

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The Pacers finished off the home portion of their 2022-23 schedule Friday night and after the game, the players remained on the court for about 15 minutes.

As always, players walked around to interact with fans, thanking them for their support all year. They signed mini-basketball, items from fans and took photos. The one thing I did not see was tubs of player shoes collected throughout the season that are typically given away.

The building was sold-out for the seventh and final time of the season. And, as you see in the photo above, Buddy Hield took fan appreciation night to another level.

When he was out of the game, he sat in row 1 on the baseline. Afterward, I asked him about that experience and what was said.

“They said a lot of things I can’t talk about,” Hield said, laughing. “But it was fun just connecting with the fans. The fans in Indy have been so great to me since I’ve been here. It was a smooth transition (from Sacramento). Nothing but love and respect for them. They opened their arms and welcomed me to the city.

“When I came off the plane — me, Tyrese and Tristan, from the organization, from the fans, everybody just opened their arms and shown us the love. I feel really appreciated and this feels like home. Love being here and hopefully next year we can get these fans what they really want and get to the playoffs.”

Come on the court with me in the video below and see Pacers players enjoying the final interaction with fans of the season following their loss to the Pistons.

It debuted Wednesday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse before they opened the season against the Washington Wizards, a 114-107 loss. And they kept with tradition of introducing the entire roster — not just the starters — at the home opener.

Bennedict Mathurin and Aaron Nesmith …

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You can read my story from the event with details of the activities here.

To begin, the players were separated into teams for a scrimmage that needed an extra session to decide the winner. The White Team ca…

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So today, after the second practice (Sept. 28), T.J. McConnell and James Johnson worked on shooting with assistant coach Jenny Bouce…

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However, for about 15 minutes on Saturday, a few of us were able to see individual station work with coaches after they completed team practice for the day. I specifically liked seeing the assistant coaches run their sta…

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Rylie, wearing a white dri-fit Pacers shirt that was entirely too big for her, pulled mom down the court using equipment from the weight room.

Wait until the end for the wave 👋

Warren hasn’t played since Dec. 29, 2020 due to a stress fracture in his left foot. He’s in his third season with the Pacers and will have been sidelined for 150 of the last 154 games.

Speaking in Houston before the Pacers played the Rockets, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle shared his reaction to the news and confirmed that Warren had played 5-on-5 in practice. (Reporters at practice seven weeks ago saw him play 1-on-1 against Malcolm Brogdon.)

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The current state of the Pacers isn’t good to begin February. After going 5-11 last month, they’re now 19-33, 13th in East and have the fifth-worst record in the NBA. I’ve been on the Pacers beat since 2012 and this … is highly unusual.

The season was derailed by injuries even before training camp started — with T.J. Warren yet to play in a game due to a slow-healing foot after surgery, Caris LeVert dealing with a stress fracture in his back at the start of camp, and so on.

Honestly, you’re probably tired of hearing and reading about injuries. Yet on top of that, they’ve been negatively affected by 13 players so far entering the health and safety protocols over the last two months.

One thing that is different recently is that Warren has returned to playing 1-on-1.

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Kenny Smith is best known now for his excellent work on TNT’s studio show “Inside the NBA,” which airs weekly during the NBA season. Together with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Shaq, the crew has the most entertaining sports studio show on TV.

Smith — who learned about broadcasting from his wife, a news reporter — also is a two-time NBA champion with the Houston Rockets and a starter for most of his 10-year career after playing four years at the University of North Carolina.

Like all of us, though, Smith found himself with extra time over the last four months with sports put on the back burner. So he was productive and figured young players had an itch to not only play basketball, but to learn. So he launched The Jet Academy — and then enlisted NBA and WNBA players like Victor Oladipo, Kemba Walker, Trae Young, Brittney Griner and Breanna Stewart to contribute each week.

“With the social distancing and the pandemic, all the live events and things that you go to are canceled, I have a basketball camp that was canceled so I was like, ‘Well, why should everyone’s development stop? Why? It shouldn't.’ So I just created the first sports academy that’s streaming,” Smith said.

“We become your personal trainer for an hour, an hour and a half a day. You work side-by-side, you can ask questions and it works on any device anywhere.”

Oladipo goes live with Smith every day this week at noon ET and you can use code BIGSHAQ to save $35 at sign-up. We talked about this venture, along with plenty of basketball items on a Zoom call Monday afternoon.

Watch our full conversation in the embedded player below, or you can listen to on the Fieldhouse Files podcast. (Fieldhouse Files can be heard wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor and Google Podcasts.)

Below is a highlight from our conversation.

On Victor Oladipo…

I think for him, he’s got to be healthy. I was a little alerted because players at that level — All-Star, as Victor is, and on the verge of super stardom possibly — they always think 50 percent of themselves is better than anybody else. So when he said I might not be ready, I was like … you usually have to tell guys not to play. So I was alerted as a player, as a managerial head, a coach. I would be like, wait a minute. Normally I got to talk guys into ‘Nah, nah not yet.’ Especially at that level of player.

I just hope that he comes back, he’s 100 percent, he doesn’t risk any injury because the future always feels like now, but the future is long. So he’s got a long career ahead of him and the Pacers have a long possibly career with him, so they have to think about all of those things.

Kenny “The Jet Smith” played in the NBA from 1987-97 and now stars on “Inside the NBA.” (Photo: @TheJetOnTNT)

On whether mental health is a larger component now…

I think there’s a little bit more distractions as well, obviously, because you hear the noise easier with social media. Like, we didn’t hear the noise as easily unless we turned on sports radio. We decided to turn that off. When your device is on, you get alerts you’re not even thinking about or your friends around the world instantly get information that we didn’t have a problem with. But we also had a championship (mindset) of how to clear your head, create the space to have a great work environment. That’s not new, maybe new to them. But that’s not new.

On Pacers coach Nate McMillan…

For being a point guard at 6-4 and his length, he was such a great defender. I think that was one of the things I remember that stood out. You always had to be careful in the passing lanes because normally you could make a pass at this angle, but because his arm length was so long, you had to throw the ball a little further out. That just stands out and he played on some great Seattle teams that we had some real difficulties playing against at times with the Rockets, even in our championship years.

He’s brought a lot of that to his thought process as a coach, without question should have been in the top two or three for Coach of the Year last year and again, with all the injuries, he still has the Pacers in the playoffs. His best players aren’t always there and just an unbelievable job Nate is doing in the long run. Just happy to see that happen for him.

On whether being a small-market team contributes to them not having postseason success…

Well, you could be the Knicks. (laughs)

You could be a great, big market and never make the playoffs. So no, I think (fans) get spoiled that (the Pacers) make the playoffs. Being one of the top eight teams consistently over the years is very difficult and it’s a big accomplishment.

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