Whitley Yates: What the Pacers taught me about building a team

I have a confession: I judge leaders based on how they talk about their favorite team.

I am a proud, lifelong Indiana Pacers fan. I have watched us through rebuilds, heartbreaks and those beautiful surprise runs where everything starts to click. Somewhere between yelling at my TV and refreshing box scores, I realized I was also getting a free master class in building teams.

In business, we love to talk about talent. We hire the “best” people, list their titles and assume the pieces will fit. But if the Pacers have taught us anything, it’s that talent without chemistry is just cardio in a different uniform.

On a good Pacers night, you see people who understand their roles. There is the primary scorer who knows when to attack and when to kick it out. There is the facilitator who makes everyone else better. There is the defender who will never lead the highlight reel but quietly wins possessions. There is the sixth man who comes off the bench and changes the energy.

Most organizations have the same mix; they just don’t always admit it. You have your star producer, your culture carrier, your systems person and your “spark plug” who makes every room livelier. The problems start when you pretend everyone is supposed to be the star or you refuse to value the defender who guards the metaphorical paint. That might be the operations manager who fixes what customers never see or the assistant who keeps the trains running on time.

Then there is chemistry. Watch the Pacers when the ball is popping. Players pass up a good shot for a great one. Nobody holds the ball too long. They trust that if they cut to the rim, someone will see them. That is what healthy teams feel like. Information flows. Credit is shared. People move without fear that their effort will be wasted.

In business, the opposite is just as obvious. Long meetings where everyone talks in circles. Emails that are more about territory than solutions. Leaders who hold on to decisions the way a bad point guard holds on to the ball. The scoreboard might not be hanging in an arena, but the results show up in missed deadlines, quiet quitting and clients who drift away.

The Pacers have also taught me the power of momentum. A 10-point run in the third quarter can decide a game. A team that knows how to ride momentum will double down on what is working, not suddenly change the playbook. In business, momentum looks like hitting a sales streak, finally landing the right hire or seeing a new service line catch on. The lesson is simple. When your team finds something that works, give them air cover and let them run the fast break.

Finally, even the best teams need timeouts and film review. The Pacers pause to reset, draw up a new play or stop a slide. Strong leaders do the same. They call a timeout when the culture feels off, not just when the numbers do. They review what happened, make adjustments and then send everyone back out with clarity.

We live in a state that loves basketball. Maybe the smartest thing we can do as leaders is admit that our conference rooms are just another kind of court, our employees are our roster, and every season is a chance to build something that performs like a cohesive team.•

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Yates is director of diversity for the Indiana Republican Party, a political commentator and a law degree candidate. Send comments to [email protected].

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