Boomer rappelled down to the court at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and Tim Sinclair didn’t even know.

The new Indiana Pacers public address announcer, fueled by adrenaline, found himself so concentrated on introducing the team’s coaches, staff and players on opening night last week he failed to notice the mascot’s extravagant entrance. Victor Oladipo, Tyreke Evans and their teammates lined up in front of him, and even that went unnoticed. Only when Sinclair watched a replay of the night did he realize what transpired.

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And only minutes into the game did the reality he’d be in the same spot for Saturday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets and the rest of the Pacers’ home slate sink in.

“These are games that everybody’s talking about all the time, all season long, that I’ve followed since I was a kid,” Sinclair said. “So to be sitting literally front and center for that kind of thing with the stars that my boys and I follow on a daily basis, (is) pretty incredible.”

Sinclair is no stranger to the public address announcer’s chair. He does the same for University of Illinois’ men’s and women’s basketball games, other Fighting Illini sports and Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire. Not to mention any soccer game played at Soldier Field. He will miss a handful of games for Illinois this season due to his Pacers duties. Sinclair will also continue to host WCIA-3's "ciLiving," a lifestyle show based in Champaign that runs in the afternoon.

But last Wednesday he stepped up and delivered in a national — maybe even international — spotlight for the first time.

The Detroit native, raised in Champaign, Ill., since the sixth grade, grew up watching the Michigan Wolverines and Detroit Pistons. Then later the Fighting Illini, Chicago Bulls and Pacers. What he’s found special about going to games has never been about who won or the players competing.

“My memories are all of the experience, the sights and the sounds and the smells even of the arena,” Sinclair said. “So you remember the band or the music or the smell of the hot dogs or (seeing) the cheerleaders. Whatever is happening. And the public address announcer is part of that experience. When a guy's been there for a long time, you know you're at Pacers basketball. You know you’re at Illinois basketball.”

Sinclair values the small part he plays in everyone’s game-day experience.

When he shows up each game, he does his best to reflect what the crowd is feeling — or should be feeling. And do it in such a way he’s helpful, not distracting.

Beyond announcing, Sinclair has a tech-based startup that launched in 2014. It’s called RINGR, and it allows someone to record an interview with another person anywhere in the world and sound as if the two people are in the same room.

Sinclair nearly earned the public address announcer role with the Chicago Cubs in 2011, and the same Pacers position he holds now just last year, but finished second in the tryouts each time. It was his near-win with the Cubs that gave him the confidence he might have the chops to be somebody in this field.

As the backup to Jerry Baker, the Pacers’ original radio voice, last season Sinclair didn’t call any games. But Sinclair did fill in for some Indiana Fever contests.

“Didn’t really think of it as a tryout nor did they ever say it was,” said Sinclair, referring to the Pacers’ job. “But, by the end of those five games, we were having discussions about doing the full-time thing.”

Sinclair is excited for his 9- and 11-year-old sons to hear him call Pacers games and to work more in Indianapolis, where his parents and sister live.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Jordan Guskey on Twitter at @JordanGuskey or email him at jguskey@gannett.com.