INDIANAPOLIS — All of this feels like a dream, but Troy Pepper Jr. is wide awake.
The Indianapolis native doesn’t want to go to sleep because, in the last few days, reality has been so much better than anything he could imagine. For the first time in nearly 40 years, NBA All-Star Weekend is in his hometown — and he’s been the voice of it.
Pepper is one of two Indiana Pacers PA announcers, and he was rewarded with the opportunity to announce several events during All-Star Weekend. He’ll reach the pinnacle Sunday night when he announces player intros for the NBA’s 73rd All-Star Game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
“Man, if I would’ve told 17-year-old Troy that I was doing this, he would literally say, ‘Stop lying, bro!’” Pepper said, laughing. “I can think back to my first (high school) sectional basketball game, and now I’m doing the NBA All-Star Game? He wouldn’t believe it.”
When Pepper was a teenager, he didn’t envision becoming an NBA PA announcer with thousands of followers on TikTok. He hardly even knew what that job was. The only reason Pepper ended up in media is because his best friend, Riley Robbins, persuaded him to take a TV class at Pike High School in Indianapolis. However, Robbins, who laughed while reflecting on their high school days, isn’t exactly sure what Pepper learned.
“I told Troy, ‘Bro, this is an easy class,’ but then he just sat there and didn’t do nothing,” said Robbins, who’s now a film director in Los Angeles. “Our teacher would be like, ‘Troy, didn’t I kick you out of this class?’ I did all of his video editing and all of his work. All he did was sit there and wear his backpack for the whole first semester until that one morning.”
That day, the student who usually was the on-air talent for their TV class was out sick, and all Robbins saw was opportunity. While Pepper wasn’t too interested in the behind-the-scenes production, he always had a big personality. So, Robbins, who was the class’ TV director, chose Pepper to read all of the school’s announcements on camera. His enthusiasm and silliness resulted in an unforgettable debut that landed Robbins and Peppers in detention, but not for long.
Although their TV teacher was upset, the rest of the school, including the principal, loved the show. Many of them told Robbins that they “needed more Pepper,” and Robbins was thrilled for someone else to finally see the potential he always saw in his buddy. After all, this was the same kid who used to scream out, “IT’S GAME TIME!” for the whole neighborhood to hear whenever they were about to play pick-up basketball.
Pepper had the raw talent. He just needed a little direction. He found it while covering future NBA champion and Pacer Jeff Teague as a reporter in his TV class. After Teague graduated in 2007, Pepper, who was one year behind him in school, decided to move from reporting and slide into the PA announcer chair at Pike.
“I remember doing the intros one day and this random referee leaned over and said, ‘Hey, man, you should do a career in this. You got a voice,’” Pepper said. “I took that to heart because I remember how nervous I used to get, but then after a couple of games, I was in a groove, and I thought, ‘Man, I really love this.’”
From there, Pepper began to take his craft seriously. He graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University with a degree in information technology but never stopped using his voice as a way to bring people together, even if the opportunity didn’t always seem linear. Pepper emceed the Black Expo in Indy, volunteered at mayoral events and announced several high school and college games until he made it to the NBA. Over the last three years, Pepper has merged his two worlds as a full-time peoples operations manager at Crowe LLP during the day and a Pacers PA announcer at night. The latter gig still feels like it’s too good to be true, especially considering how it came together.
“I was playing golf with another of one of my buddies, and he said, ‘Hey, you should apply and try to audition for the Pacers PA position,’” Pepper said. “I said, ‘Is it even open? Send me the link.’ The application was due on a Friday night, and I was thinking, ‘Man, I shouldn’t do this. They’re gonna pick someone else anyway.’ But then I said, ‘You know what? Let’s just try.’”
Pepper sent in his video audition just before the deadline on Sept. 10, 2021, and two weeks later, he got the job. In retrospect, he believes the voice in his head that told him to go for it wasn’t his own.
It was his mom’s.
Lisa Pepper died from complications from paranasal carcinoma (a form of cancer) on June 2, 2021, three months before Pepper landed the biggest media job of his career. She was 53 and one of Pepper’s biggest fans.
“Any good news, I’d call mom. First job, graduation, first car, anything,” Pepper said. “When I told her I was gonna get engaged to my wife, she’s the first person I called. I called her every single day, so our relationship — she was my mother, but after I graduated college in my early 20s, that’s when she became like my best friend as an adult. The toughest part of 2021, we were just grieving. … So when I got this news, I just felt like the stars aligned.
“I know how happy she would be for me.”
Lisa Pepper was the inspiration for Troy Jr. to send his audition tape to the Pacers. (Photo courtesy of Troy Pepper Jr.)
Pepper said his mother’s memory and the support of his family fuel him to never take his life for granted, and his father couldn’t be prouder. Troy Pepper Sr. remembers watching games with Troy Jr. and his two other sons, who were all “Pacers geeks” during the days of Reggie Miller, Rik Smits and “The Rifleman,” Chuck Person. Pepper Jr. said he loves the Pacers so much that he cried when they lost to Shaquille O’Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000 NBA Finals. On Saturday night, he was in the same building as the Hall of Fame center who once broke his heart.
“Just to see his dream come true and to see him do something he always wanted to do, something in sports, it’s amazing. That’s all me and my wife wanted,” Pepper Sr. said before laughing and throwing a verbal jab. “ … He calls LeBron (James) the GOAT, and he’s even got my granddaughters deluded. I try to tell them that it’s (Michael) Jordan, but that’s about all we disagree on.”
The younger Pepper insists there’s a lot more that goes into his PA announcer role at games than “just grabbing a microphone.” He wears a headset so that his directors and producers can help him deliver a heavily scripted show that includes promotions, awards presentations and other special announcements throughout the game.
Pepper usually looks over the production plans at least a day in advance, and he’ll repeatedly practice all of the names he’s going to say the night before the game, during his lunch break the day of the game and even in his car before he goes into the arena for the game. Pepper added that he often studies other PA announcers, including Brooklyn’s Olivier Sedra and Boston’s Eddie Palladino, to steal a few of their skills to blend into his own style, which he promised would be on full display for the NBA All-Star Weekend finale.
Pepper acknowledge that it will be surreal to announce his GOAT, James, as an All-Star Game starter for the 20th consecutive year. But as a true Pacers fan, the player he most looks forward to introducing is Pacers point guard and Wisconsin native Tyrese Haliburton, who will start in the All-Star Game for the first time.
“I think those that are from Indy are gonna love that a hometown guy is introducing, in a way, a hometown kid who’s also a Midwest kid,” Pepper said. “Indianapolis is not big, and he’s from Wisconsin, a small town there, so we have that Midwest connection. So, to be able to share this with him and his family, it’s a dope honor, man.
“Hopefully I can keep announcing his name for years to come, and hopefully, I can do it in the NBA Finals.”
(Top photo of Troy Pepper Jr.: James Boyd / The Athletic)
