Indiana Pacers center Micah Potter celebrates a shot, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
After a falling just short of an NBA championship last season, the Indiana Pacers have had far different fortunes this season. Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals and is out for the entire season, and the Pacers have dealt with a steady stream of injury woes up and down the roster all season long. Entering Wednesday, they sit at 15-50 and last in the Eastern Conference.
But one bright spot the last few months has been Micah Potter, a journeyman post player who’s seeing the most usage of his career and providing stability to the Pacers roster. In 31 games since joining the Pacers in December after playing for the San Antonio Spurs G-League team, Potter is averaging career highs in points per game (9.4), rebounds (4.7), assists (1.5) and minutes played (19.6).
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The Pacers traded for star center Ivica Zubac in February, and center Jay Huff is already on the roster, but Potter may force the front office to keep him around next season if he continues to show promise and maintain a specific role. In his eyes, that means bringing energy, setting physical screens, hitting open shots and just doing the little things.
“Playing winning basketball as best as I possibly can,” Potter said to reporters following a career-high 23 points on Feb. 24. “I know the situation we’re in as far as guys being injured and things like that, so roles will change based on different lineups. But when I’m in the game, I try to play winning basketball as best I can, be physical, use my voice, and try to help my teammates and create for my teammates.”
The Pacers are the third NBA roster he’s been on since entering the league in 2021 as an undrafted free agent out of Wisconsin. He first signed with the Detroit Pistons, but appeared in just three games. He played in 61 games for the Utah Jazz over the next three seasons, operating on several two-way contracts. He signed a training camp deal with the Spurs in August but was waived prior to the regular season, before ending up on their G-League roster.
Potter appeared in a career-high 38 NBA games last season, but with 32 games played this season, he’s likely to top that mark.
His NBA journey has been a bit of a rollercoaster as he’s bounced around, but he and his wife, Elle, have continued to trust in God throughout each move.
“You have no control over your life,” Potter said in a June 2025 interview with pastor Mark Walton. “I mean, you can get traded at any point; like you have to move across the country. There’s very little social stability in this job. And it’s a business.
“But God’s in control. We’ve been doing this for a couple years and God’s been very good to us. So we’re just going to take it day by day and trust God.”
Potter — who calls himself a “Follower of Jesus” on Instagram — looks back on his time in college and wonders how different things could’ve ended up for him professionally and personally had he not made the decision to transfer from Ohio State to Wisconsin after his sophomore season. Growing up in Mentor, Ohio, his dream was to play for either Ohio State or Duke. When Ohio State offered him a scholarship, he didn’t waste much time committing to play for coach Thad Matta and the Buckeyes.
But during his freshman year, Matta dealt with several health issues throughout the season that affected his ability to coach and recruit. After the Buckeyes finished the season 17-15 and 7-11 in Big Ten play, Matta and the school mutually agreed to part ways. Chris Holtman was hired from Butler to replace Matta.
To put it bluntly, Potter said he and Holtman just didn’t see eye to eye. To add to it, he didn’t believe he was playing or developing like he needed to, and it became clear his future at Ohio State was bleak. Several people in his life advised him that transferring would be the best decision for his chances of playing professionally, so he made the difficult decision to leave his dream school and play at Big Ten-rival Wisconsin.
That decision ended up being “a mega blessing,” he said in the interview with Walton. At Ohio State, it wasn’t just the basketball aspect that made it a bad fit. His social life was taking a hit, too. Potter often found himself staying home alone most weekends while his teammates went out to party and engage in other activities he wasn’t interested in.
“In the process of transferring, there’s a lot of uncertainty,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave. I’d never even thought about going to the University of Wisconsin. But in the process, two of my roommates that I had at the University of Wisconsin were both believers. At Ohio State, I had no believers on the team.”
Three days after arriving at Wisconsin, he met Elle, who played volleyball at Loyola Chicago. The two got married in 2021, and together they have hosted faith-based sports camps in Guam through Harvest Christian Academy.
“So it’s kind of like a cool God thing,” he said. “That was a really cool thing that happened to show that God was really showing me that that was where I was supposed to be.”
Since entering the NBA, Potter has used his platform to share his testimony and point others to Jesus — especially college athletes whose situation may resemble his. In 2024, he spoke to a group of student-athletes at Bob Jones University in South Carolina, where he talked about dealing with the pressures of being a Christian college athlete, specifically abstaining from certain behaviors.
His encouragement to them was that while some people may view it as strange socially or even look down upon them for holding those standards, they shouldn’t worry about that.
“Honoring God is the most important thing you could ever do, regardless of what people think,” Potter said. “And God rewards those who honor Him.”
He then quoted Matthew 6:33, which says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well,” and reminded them that as Christians, they’re called to love others and be a light.
“Going from a super Godly environment to a very un-Godly environment, you have a tendency to look down on people,” said Potter, who is the son of a pastor. “Like, ‘Oh, you’re a sinner, I’m not going to do that.’ To me, I don’t think I ever intended it to come across that way, but it did.
“So the one thing that I’ve learned is to really love people — regardless of who they are, regardless of where they came from, regardless of how they grew up, what school they went to, what church they went to, what church they didn’t go to. Loving people — that’s the No. 1 thing that no one will ever think poorly of you for loving them.”
After 11 points in a loss Tuesday night to Sacramento, Potter and the Pacers are back in action Thursday at home against Phoenix.
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