Pacers Exec Reveals a Trade He Made Once Saved a Player's Life

Indiana Pacers assistant general manager Ted Wu recently hopped on Alex Golden and Mike Facci's essential "Setting The Pace" podcast for an extensive conversation covering both his own career pre-basketball and some more granular elements of his Indiana tenure past and present.

Wu reflected on the moment when a trade for a young wingman may have saved his life.

In January 2021, Indiana acquired 6-foot-6 shooting guard Caris LeVert from the Brooklyn Nets in a four-team deal with that also included the Cleveland Cavaliers and Brooklyn Nets. Former Pacers All-Star wing Victor Oladipo was shipped out to the Houston Rockets, but the headliner being moved was 2018 Houston MVP James Harden, who had forced his way to the Nets, where he would join fellow future Hall of Famers Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving for a short-lived experiment.

As detailed by The Athletic, a physical conducted on the Michigan product revealed a kidney tumor that had to be removed. LeVert later said that, had he not been traded and not undergone the required post-trade physical, doctors may not have caught the tumor in time.

"I've seen many, many, many trades [while] working at the league office," Wu said. "I was going into that trade just thinking it was gonna be a normal trade, [thinking about] normal player transactions, this is how it's gonna affect the team on the court, this is what it's gonna look like from an on-court perspective. And I remember going into the trade, and everybody was like, 'This is normal, players have to do medicals.'"

"I'm waiting for the trainers to kind of give me the okay that things are fine and we can pass Caris on the trade," Wu said. "And they're saying, 'We just need another hour, we just need another hour.' And I'm like, 'Oh, I guess this is how it works from the team side.'"

"And then, when you kind of realize what's actually happening, and then how to unwind it, and then what happens and plays out afterwards, you realize, 'Okay, there's so much more of a human element of everything that goes in, working for the team.' And again I was on the job for like a month working for the Pacers at the time," Wu added. "And I'll always remember it because it's one of those things that is such a life moment."

When he did return, LeVert enjoyed his most prolific run in his career to date. He logged averages of 20.7 on .443/.318/.822 shooting splits, 4.9 assists, 4.6 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 0.7 blocks a night in 35 healthy games.