Give and Go
IT’S 10 A.M. in California, and sunshine is streaming into Steve Simon’s San Francisco office. Framed rock posters lean against the wall, waiting to be hung. There’s the Grateful Dead; Sly and the Family Stone; Radiohead; that famous one by Milton Glaser in which Bob Dylan’s hair is a psychedelic rainbow.
Simon, who gets up an hour or two before his family to meditate (he and his wife have four young kids), is already well into his work day. At 54, the private equity firm owner percolates with affable, boyish energy. “I have ADHD,” he says, presumably as an apology for his conversational style, which tends to drift from the topic at hand.
Today, that topic is the Indiana Pacers, which Steve’s father and uncle, Herb and Mel Simon, bought in 1983. Since Mel’s death in 2009, Herb has been the Pacers’ sole owner and shot-caller. At 86, he is now the NBA’s oldest and longest-tenured owner. According to some of his colleagues, he is of sound enough mind and body to continue the job indefinitely. But, in recognition of time’s undefeated record against mere mortals, Herb announced in 2017 that his son, Steve Simon, would be his successor.
The truth is, the
