Derek Schultz: Alex Golden explains how his Pacers podcast has flourished

When Alex Golden launched the “Setting The Pace” podcast before the 2018-2019 NBA season, he was merely trying to create a niche space for fans to gather to talk Indiana Pacers basketball. He eventually recruited fellow Blue and Gold fanatic Mike Facci—a New Jersey resident who had never met Golden face-to-face—as co-host. The two have built such a strong chemistry and passionate following that even Pacers brass has taken notice.

Now in the middle of season six of “Setting The Pace,” Golden, 32, has earned game credentials as a full-fledged media member, has interviewed most of the Pacers leadership and roster on the show and just welcomed a new child into the world. He found time to discuss the podcast’s success and its evolution alongside the ever-changing Pacers, all while juggling his work and family responsibilities.

How did “Setting The Pace” get started?

I grew up listening to the radio all the time, so I originally wanted to do that, but then I started hearing about this thing called a podcast. Through Twitter, I met Mike Goodpaster, who ran The Grueling Truth Network, and he asked me to do NBA coverage for their site. I eventually began hosting basketball podcasts for them called “Let’s Talk NBA” and a Pacers show called “Let’s Go Pacers.” I didn’t want to keep doing the Pacers show all by myself, so I reached out for a co-host and connected with Mike Facci. From there on out, we started clicking, and the show that became “Setting The Pace” came to fruition.

We’ve done over 1,100 episodes. If you go back and listen to the beginning, they’re pretty rough, but it’s cool to see how much we’ve evolved as co-hosts together and individually.

When did you know that “Setting The Pace” was really catching on?

The turning point was [Pacers President] Kevin Pritchard giving us a Caris LeVert injury update on the show. After I posted the episode, [Pacers television sideline reporter] Jeremiah Johnson messaged me on Twitter and asked if I could send the quote from the interview before that night’s Pacers game in Minnesota. I’ll never forget when the camera pans to LeVert and Jeremiah says, “I talked to Alex Gordon, and they had Kevin Pritchard on their podcast ‘Setting The Pace,’” and he repeated the quote. I was like, “Oh my God, my name and the podcast just got mentioned on the broadcast!” After he read the entire transcript of that quote, [Pacers television color commentator Quinn] Buckner goes, “Setting The Pace!” We just got our name read on live television, and it kind of blew up after that.

How have you been able to earn that trust where you’re viewed as major media, even if you aren’t traditionally “major” media?

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. I didn’t do anything special. I was just talking about the Pacers all the time. One of my big breaks was getting on [93.5 & 107.5 The Fan] for the first time, because I know the Pacers front office listens to sports radio. Bringing me back as a recurring guest caught their attention and led to the relationship with the front office and getting Pritchard on the show. I do think that since [Pacers Vice President of Basketball Communications] Mike Preston has taken over, they’ve embraced more of the podcast media side of things.

You’re juggling a lot right now. Besides the “Setting The Pace” work, you have a full-time day job, a wife, and you guys just welcomed your first child. What’s that balancing act been like as the show has exploded over the past couple of years?

Prioritizing my time has been tough, because I basically have three jobs and [“Setting The Pace”] is third. I work 10 hours a day as a delivery manager and shipping assistant. I also clean my church part time with my dad, and it’s a pretty large church in Fountain Square. I run a social media page for my friends at Smokin’ Barrel Barbeque and post three times a week, not to mention the fact that I’m a new dad. Facci is a new dad, too, so he is juggling all that while doing the podcast. So we are in the same boat now.

Prioritizing time has been a challenge, but my wife is my rock and the superstar of the family. She allows for me to have time to do the podcast and watch the games. She is totally OK with it, because she understands what this show means to me and has seen how it has grown. We dealt with infertility for years, and the show was my escape from dealing with the struggles and the negativity of that. My wife had a surgery, and then we got pregnant and had the baby in the same year [in 2024]. We thought it would take months, if it ever happened at all, so it was a miracle year for us. It’s truly surreal that all of this has gone as it has.

Rick Carlisle shouted you out during a press conference. What was that experience like?

I had been gone for about a month leading up to the birth of my son back in December. I came back for a pregame press conference, and Rick walks in the room, sees me, throws his hands up and says, “Alex is a first-time dad here, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s give him a round of applause!” For Rick Carlisle to come out there and give me an ovation for the baby and the Pacers public relations staff to also get me a gift bag for [my son], it made me feel like I was part of the Pacers family. It’s just who they are.

Back in October, I had a bit of a health scare with my heart, and I got rushed to the emergency room. I’m about to have a baby here with my wife, I’m having heart complications, and we’re trying to figure out what the heck is happening. When I posted about it, Tyrese Haliburton reached out to me privately and just said that he was praying for me and hoped that I feel better. That’s another one of the really cool moments from covering this team.

Is it a challenge to straddle that fence where now you’re media but at the end of the day you’re still a fan?

Yeah, it’s different when you walk into the room and Tyrese Haliburton calls you out by name and gives you crap for a tweet you put out. I will say that when you have been doing it for as long as we’ve been doing it, I have grown numb a little bit to the fandom part of it. I’m still a fan, but I don’t wear my emotions on my sleeves or get super-mad.

I think the hardest thing for me to do is be critical when it’s time to be critical, while also having to understand the fan perspective.

For example, I was driving the bus for wanting to trade Myles Turner for many years, and then he came on our show two years ago and daps me up at a Pacers practice. So even though I said all this stuff about him, there’s no hard feelings. You still have to stay true to who you are and what you’re seeing, whether it’s right or wrong.•

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From Peyton Manning’s peak with the Colts to the Pacers’ most recent roster makeover, Schultz has talked about it all as a sports personality in Indianapolis for more than 15 years. Besides his written work with IBJ, he’s active in podcasting and show hosting. You can follow him on X @Schultz975.