‘He should have called me.’ Mike Epps weighs in on Kevin Hart leading Pacers entertainment

Comedian Mike Epps, a virtual Indianapolis emissary in entertainment, said he wasn’t slighted that officials selected his one-time adversary Kevin Hart to lead entertainment ventures for WNBA All-Star 2025, taking place in Indianapolis.

“Who goes to Indiana? I’m still trying to figure out who … wants to go there and do something in Indiana other than myself,” the Indianapolis native joked during a radio show appearance on “The Breakfast Club” radio show appearance Tuesday when asked how he felt that the Pacers and Fever didn’t call him for the job. “I’m the only fan they got outside of what their fans are in that city.”

Pacers Sports & Entertainment last week announced it has tapped Hart’s Hartbeat entertainment company as the official “cultural curator” to provide entertainment and live experiences for fans and the Indianapolis community. The comedian and actor will be front and center at WNBA All-Star 2025 with the Indiana Fever hosting July 18-19.

Epps is an Indianapolis booster who has featured Indianapolis brands on his Indy-set Netflix show “The Upshaws,” regularly welcomes celebrities to his Fall Creek home and shows them around the city, and with his wife produced an HGTV reality show following the rehabilitation of houses in his childhood neighborhood.

Alongside former Fever star Tamika Catchings, he emceed the tip-off celebration for the 2024 NBA All-Star weekend when the Pacers hosted in Indianapolis.

Epps said he was disappointed that Hart didn’t contact him when he visited Indianapolis. The Pacers announcement was accompanied by a photo of Hart touring Gainbridge Fieldhouse in November 2024.

“Kevin should have called me if he was in Indianapolis,” Epps said. “I definitely called him when I was in Philly (for a show). But he didn’t answer the phone.”

The Pacers and Fever experiences will include stand-up comedy, musical acts, half-time shows, festivals and merchandise collaborations at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and throughout the Indianapolis area.

Hartbeat’s projects include Hart’s sports talk series “Cold as Balls” and “Shaquille O’Neal’s All-Star Comedy Jam” at various large sporting events, as well as ESPN’s “NBA Unplugged with Kevin Hart.”

Epps said he believes most Pacers brass were unfamiliar with the past bickering between the two comedians.

“It’s politics. And a lot of times, people that are not in a business like comedy or people who are not in the rap game, that run entities, they don’t know,” Epps said. “They think me and Kevin are sitting in the backyard drinking iced tea together. So you really can’t get upset about it.”

“It’s enough for everybody,” he said. “Kevin has put on enough young comics and people, so I didn’t get slighted about that.”

The “Friday” movie franchise star does expect to collaborate with Hart in some capacity during the festivities or on other projects.

“I was just on the phone with him, telling him that that’s what we got to do,” he said.