The Indiana Pacers have acquired the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Developmental League, the team announced on Wednesday.
“We are proud to extend the Pacers brand into Northeast Indiana and excited about continuing the tradition of professional basketball in Fort Wayne,” said Pacers owner Herb Simon. “We will work closely with the Mad Ants staff to provide support and expertise on both the business and basketball sides and we hope to build on their enthusiastic fan base.”
The Mad Ants were the last team in the D-League who weren’t owned by a NBA organization, after playing the previous seasons with multiple team affiliates. The Pacers have had an affiliation with the Mad Ants since 2007, but now the organization controls 100% of the team instead of having a partnership.
“Owning the Mad Ants will be integral to developing our young talent,” said Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird. “We’ll have the ability to institute the same offensive and defensive systems as the Pacers run and create a winning basketball culture across the state of Indiana. We are excited to build on the team’s success in Fort Wayne while using it as a training ground for players, coaches and front-office personnel.”
Only if the Pacers owned the Mad Ants a few months ago, they could have sent Roy Hibbert to Fort Wayne and work on his game instead of sending him to the D-League team in Los Angeles, the Lakers.
