Indianapolis, IN
NBA's biggest stars react to All-Star Game weekend in Indianapolis
INDIANPOLIS (WISH) — The stars — and the snow — have come and gone as NBA All-Star Game weekend is in Indianapolis’ rearview mirror.
Before the big names left town, they had some things to say about this year’s host city.
A few things stood out to the stars like the weather.
“It was cold,” Lakers forward Anthony Davis laughed. “It was cold, but Indy was good to us.”
“I didn’t know Indy gets that cold,” Raptors forward Scottie Barnes said. “Now I know it gets really cold. It’s like a windy cold. But, I had fun here though.”
Indy’s fans left an impression as well.
“Basketball means so much here, and I thought you saw it,” Clippers forward and former Indiana Pacers player Paul George said. “I’ve been to quite a few All-Star games and I will say the energy in here was pretty electric. You felt it. It was pretty different than other places I’ve been.”
“They showed a lot of love,” Clippers forward Kahwai Leonard said. “A great basketball city, a lot of history here. Even in the cold, they came out and was out showing love.”
“They support all the players. It’s kind of cool just to be in the city and feel the joy that we are bringing to people,” Nuggets center Nikola Jokic said.
“This is a basketball state. This is basketball country. We’re definitely around a lot of basketball fans so it was really cool to be out here with the best players in the game, but also around a lot of really good basketball fans,” Hawks point guard Trae Young said.
Today’s stars also loved being around the stars that made Indiana basketball what it is.
“I’m a big ‘pay homage’ guy to the ones that come before you,” Suns guard Devin Booker said. “Being in there with (Larry) Bird, being in there with Reggie (Miller) in their home cities, their hometowns, man, it was good time.”
The NBA wasn’t the only one impressed by Indy. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert says she loved every minute of this weekend, and hopes to bring a WNBA All-Star Game to the city in the future.
If there’s one topic that can compel multiple people to shout an expletive into a microphone in a church sanctuary, it’s data centers.
Company executives from Atlanta-based DC BLOX, the latest developer looking to build a data center campus in Indianapolis, made their pitch on April 27 at Downey Avenue Christian Church in Irvington, the east-side neighborhood near which three proposed facilities would sit. The sanctuary was packed with close to 200 people, including residents who came to speak vehemently against the idea, union laborers who showed up to support it and many more who came to listen.
“It’s not popular to be in the data center business right now. It’s really popular to go online, on social media especially, and hate on data centers,” DC BLOX Senior Vice President of Sales David Armistead said to the room before public comment. “But what I will tell you is not all data centers are the same, and not all data center companies are the same. And if there’s a data center that was irresponsible and they’re getting a lot of hate, then that’s well-deserved.”
Armistead’s remarks did little to comfort residents who criticized the plan for several reasons, among them: the company’s intention to seek tax breaks; the air and noise pollution more than three dozen backup diesel generators could cause; and the data centers’ proposed location just south of Irvington Community Elementary School.
“I think you should pay your fair share of taxes, just like every small business in the community pays taxes from the day they open their door,” William Moser, an east-side resident, told the company leaders.
While most kept their comments civil, one woman told the DC BLOX representatives that “every single one of you are disgusting.”
Before the meeting, the company decided to postpone its May hearing before the Metropolitan Development Commission hearing examiner to take more time to gather feedback. The use variance request required for the data center — which needs final approval by the full MDC but not the Indianapolis City-County Council — is now set for an initial hearing June 11.
What to know about DC BLOX data center
DC BLOX wants to build a data center campus with three buildings encompassing more than 400,000 square feet in an industrial park just east of Irvington, at 305 Fintail Drive. The company aims to complete the initial facility, the smallest at 80,000 square feet, within two years of city approval and the two larger buildings by 2030.
All told, Armistead said, the three facilities would cost upward of $2 billion to build and use close to 80 megawatts of energy — enough to power tens of thousands of homes. DC BLOX says the data center will employ 35 “high-wage” permanent staffers and up to 600 construction workers during the buildout.
The buildings would sit on part of a 150-acre site where a longstanding Ford automotive parts factory operated until 2007. After the plant was demolished, the site rebranded as the Thunderbird Commerce Center in 2021 to attract logistics and manufacturing firms.
The site’s anchor business is beverage retailer and distributor Monarch Distributing, which moved into a roughly 500,000-square-foot facility in 2024. The data center buildings would be just north of where Monarch sits, closer to the Pennsy Trail.
How DC BLOX deals with energy, pollution concerns
The company’s proposal aims to mitigate some of the common fears about data centers, particularly related to energy use.
For one, the facilities won’t initially be used to power artificial intelligence, the force driving much of the data center boom. DC BLOX says it will house data for regional network communications and local clients like banks, hospitals, universities and governments.
What’s more, the first building will cool computer equipment with a waterless system similar to those big-box stores use. The next two facilities would use a closed-loop system, a less water-intensive method that will pull water only from municipal provider Citizens Energy Group — not from natural aquifers.
In case of rare emergencies or mechanical issues, the company says it will dispose of leaking water in line with state regulations and not flush it into the city’s wastewater system.
DC BLOX also says it will pay for all costs associated with a new electricity substation that could be needed to power the three facilities. The company cites an AES Indiana statement that promises new data centers will cause “no negative impact to existing customer rates” because AES will be able to spread out new infrastructure costs over a larger amount of electricity sold.
Armistead said Monday night that although DC BLOX would not be legally bound by proposed city regulations on data centers that could take effect this summer, the company plans to adhere to most of them anyways. DC BLOX also won’t sign non-disclosure agreements as part of its negotiations, representatives said.
“I see this as a way to extend technology into an area where it hasn’t existed before,” Armistead said, “to allow the community to participate in this high, high- growth sector of our U.S. economy.”
The company says it aims to host another community forum in City-County Council District 20, where the data center is technically located, in the coming weeks. Irvington sits just to the west in District 14.
District 20 Councilor Michael-Paul Hart, whose opposition helped to kill a Google data center in his district last fall, told IndyStar in an April 22 phone interview he remains “neutral” on the DC BLOX proposal.
He said residents should “take the time to show up and make sure that they’re getting all questions asked and answered.”
“Anything we want in a commitment is still completely plausible, because it still takes a vote, and that’s from the MDC,” Hart said. “So if there are valid points that need to be made, there are still members of that body who are going to listen and can approve these things. And that’s where the convincing has to happen.”
Email Indianapolis City Hall Reporter Jordan Smith at JTSmith@indystar.com. Follow him on X @jordantsmith09 and Bluesky @jordanaccidentally.bsky.social.
INDIANAPOLIS (Gray News) – A woman died after falling about 50 feet from an outer curb at the Indianapolis International Airport, police confirmed.
Indianapolis Airport Police said the fall happened around 12:16 p.m. Saturday.
A security camera captured the woman falling from the outer curb of Upper Terminal Drive to a grassy area below. The fall was about 50 feet.
Several emergency departments responded, but after half an hour, she was pronounced dead by a doctor via telephone.
By Monday afternoon, police were still investigating. The woman’s identity has not yet been released.
Copyright 2026 Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Indianapolis Colts’ 2026 NFL Draft class got mixed reviews to say the least as some rankings and grades have them at the top and others in the mid-20s. Here’s a selection of the analysis from the national media.
The Colts didn’t pick in Round 1, a product of their deadline deal with the Jets to land Sauce Gardner in November. They were 7-2 at that point with Daniel Jones playing great ball, but after an overtime win the following week in Berlin, they became the first NFL team to ever be six games over .500 and still finish with a losing record (per ESPN Research). Jones tore an Achilles in Week 14, and 44-year-old Phillip Rivers, signed out of retirement, was unsurprisingly unable to right the ship.
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The CJ Allen pick is going to be huge for the defense. He was a steal at No. 53 — I had him 28th on the board. He has three-down attributes that allow him to impact the game in coverage, as a run stopper and as a blitzer. Just look at his stat line from 2025: 97 tackles, seven tackles for loss, nine run stops, three pass breakups, two forced fumbles, 3.5 sacks. Paired with free agent signing Akeem Davis-Gaither and Day 3 pick Bryce Boettcher, the linebacker unit should take a step forward.
Despite tying for 14th with 39 sacks, this team was 30th in pass rush win rate (29.1%) last season. George Gumbs Jr. and Caden Curry chip in with Laiatu Latu (who is looking like a promising young pro after 8.5 sacks in 2025) to get after more AFC South quarterbacks, but Indy could have used a little more here. A.J. Haulcy enters as a potential Nick Cross replacement next to Cam Bynum, with eight interceptions and 12 pass breakups over the past two seasons. And Jalen Farmer was a strong value in Round 4, as I ranked the 6-foot-5, 312-pound guard at No. 81 overall. He didn’t allow any sacks last season.
Without the first-round pick, the Colts did pretty well here overall, getting a borderline first-round talent on Day 2.
The Indianapolis Colts gave up their first-round pick as a part of the Sauce Gardner trade. Given the lack of elite cornerback prospects in this year’s draft — after Mansoor Delane, who was taken sixth overall — the Colts will probably stand by their position.
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Gardner will only turn 26 in August, and he may prove to be more valuable than prospects who would have been available with Indy’s 16th pick, like Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq and USC receiver Makai Lemon.
GM Chris Ballard picked up a little extra capital by trading down in Round 2 — flipping the 47th and 249th picks for the 53rd, 135th, and 237th selections — before grabbing Georgia linebacker CJ Allen.
Allen was considered one of the top off-ball linebackers in the 2026 class and should immediately boost Indy’s second-level defense. With their second pick on Day 2, the Colts added safety A.J. Haulcy, another talented defender who should make an early impact.
Haulcy was the 53rd-ranked prospect on the B/R board.
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Linebacker Bryce Boettcher could also push for early playing time. He and Allen have the potential to reshape Indy’s linebacker group, and Jalen Farmer will provide valuable depth along the interior O-line.
GM Chris Ballard could have afforded to address the team’s need at edge-rusher earlier in the draft, but he largely did a good job of adding defensive help without a Day 1 selection.
The Colts addressed their defensive needs on Days 2 and 3 after watching from the sidelines on Thursday. That has to feel good for Lou Anarumo after his group put up some real stinkers in the second half of last season.
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Inside linebacker help was a necessity for Indianapolis, and it found some in the second and fourth rounds. If not for positional value, Allen would have been a first-round pick. For him to still be on the board at 53 was a win. Allen is a hard hitter who will help establish a tough culture on the defensive unit. And if recent history tells us anything, it’s that there is nothing wrong with taking a linebacker out of Georgia.
Bryce Boettcher is just as exciting. He has two-sport experience after playing both baseball and football at Oregon and boasts a motor that separates him from most prospects in this class.
Second-round LB CJ Allen (53rd overall pick) and third-round S A.J. Haulcy (78th) seem like sweet value picks given where these talented defenders were selected – and both could start as rookies. They’re also the secondary story of this draft. In a win-now move made at least year’s trade deadline, Indy surrendered this year’s first-rounder (and next year’s even more valuable one) to the Jets for CB Sauce Gardner, who – through no fault of his own really – wasn’t able to help the cratering Colts win now in 2025. But if Gardner, who hasn’t been the same player the past few years that he was earlier in his career, doesn’t revert to All-Pro form – maybe even Deion Sanders form – history is not going to look kindly upon GM Chris Ballard’s very expensive gambit.
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Analysis: The Colts, without a first-rounder, still made this draft solid with the combination of Allen and Haulcy early to fill defensive needs. With no glaring holes, GM Chris Ballard did the best he could to bolster depth with Curry being the best later pick.
Allen: Allen is a physical, reliable middle linebacker with strong run-defense ability. His length limitations are notable, but he flashes enough in coverage to project as a starter.
Haulcy: Haulcy is a true deep safety with strong range, ball skills and an aggressive playmaking mentality. He projects as a starter in systems that keep him in a traditional backend role.
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Farmer: Farmer put together a solid but unspectacular 2025 season, earning a 69.8 PFF overall grade that ranked 93rd among guards. His best work came in pass protection, where his 72.4 PFF pass-blocking grade ranked 256th, while his 67.4 run-blocking grade ranked 113th. Across 818 snaps, he allowed 14 pressures, including three sacks and no quarterback hits, and committed one penalty.
Boettcher: Boettcher is a high-energy, multi-sport athlete who plays with physicality despite a smaller frame. He could carve out a role in an attacking defensive scheme.
Gumbs: Gumbs brings intriguing size and length (6-foot-4, 245 pounds, 33 5/8-inch arms) alongside developing production, and entered draft weekend at No. 211 on the PFF Big Board. He logged 345 snaps in 2025 and earned a 66.0 defensive grade, with solid marks in run defense (69.2) and pass rush (68.2). His 13 total pressures and 12 run stops point to flashes of impact, though five missed tackles and inconsistent efficiency highlight a still-developing profile.
Curry: Curry generated 46 pressures and 12 sacks along Ohio State’s defensive front while also excelling against the run, earning an 86.7 PFF run-defense grade. However, his lack of ideal size and length could limit his defensive role, making his extensive and productive special teams experience a key path to a roster spot.
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McGowan: McGowan has the build and athleticism to be a starting-caliber back at the NFL level. His explosiveness in short areas and long speed, paired with quick processing and play speed, make him a difference-maker between the tackles in power-run concepts.
Llewellyn: Llewellyn brings effort and a variety of pass-rush moves but is an average athlete who must improve strength to earn consistent snaps.
Burks: Burks’ size and production do not clearly point to a future NFL contributor, but his athleticism and strength make him difficult to dismiss. He offers intriguing upside as an explosive slot receiver, though he may not fit every scheme.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts draft grades: Colts get high marks from some, very low from others
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