Indiana Pacers coach Jim O’Brien glanced to his right at the banner hanging in the pavilion lobby of Conseco Fieldhouse. Then he looked up at the banner to his left.

“It’s not ironic that I’m looking at these two banners and they both say, ‘Passion,’ " O’Brien said. "That’s not just a marketing theme for what (team president) Larry (Bird’s) trying to build here.

“It is a foundation that we want to build on, and the young man sitting between Larry and I is a guy that plays with an unbelievable amount of passion.”

O’Brien also should have pointed out the other part of the franchise’s slogan — “Pride.”

Passion and pride, two words that go hand in hand with Tyler Hansbrough, the Pacers’ first-round pick in Thursday’s draft.

“I’m one of those guys where playing hard and playing hard all the time is a skill,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "Tyler has that skill as good as anybody I’ve ever seen.

“He’s a young man that’s going to do what coach O’Brien and Larry Bird tell him to do and he’s going to try to do that to the best of his ability. They’re going to get a kid that’s extremely focused on being a big-time basketball player in the NBA. He has tremendous confidence.”

Hansbrough, the 13th pick, will sign a two-year guaranteed contract that pays him $3.2 million. The Pacers have an option on third and fourth years.

Also available when the Pacers picked were UCLA point guard Jrue Holiday, projected as high as No. 4 in some mock drafts, and North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson.

Bird said he believes Hansbrough is ready to contribute.

“(Holiday is a) great kid, he’s beyond his years, but I’m going with guys that can come in and play and I felt very high of Tyler for a long time,” Bird said. “I was worried New Jersey was going to take him at (No.) 11, and if they did, I probably would have went with Jrue or Ty, but (Tyler is) who we wanted and we were lucky to get him.”

Hansbrough, a four-time All-American at North Carolina, joins a frontcourt that features Jeff Foster, Roy Hibbert, Troy Murphy and Danny Granger.

“I realize that the NBA is a little different than college, so I’ll make some adjustments, and get a feel for things a little better,” he said.

Hansbrough begins his transition to the NBA next week when he plays on the Pacers’ summer league team with Hibbert, Brandon Rush, Josh McRoberts and A.J. Price, the team’s second-round pick.

“There’s a lot I like about him, as well as some of our other younger players,” Bird said. “They strive to get better, and that’s one of the reasons I take guys that are going to get better every night.”