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Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

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  • #1

    Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

    Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers

    By Mike Lopresti, Gannett News Service

    http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colum...d-pacers_N.htm

    INDIANAPOLIS — The desk is so large, it could have its own zip code. Behind it sat the basketball workaholic who has always known how to solve any problem. Until lately.
    Practice harder, shoot more free throws. That would usually do it. Most times, he would win and be revered for it. Rarely would he fail.

    But Larry Bird's world has changed. The Indiana Pacers' record is bad, even by Eastern Conference standards. Their attendance is the worst in the NBA. Their off-court problems would take an hour to detail. The public is fed up, the media are skeptical.

    Bird is a legend and state natural resource. But what good is that when you're the president of basketball operations and your team is 24-37 entering Thursday night's game, and has shown a much better flair for showing up in police reports than the playoffs?

    To fix the crisis, Bird cannot take the court two hours before the game the way he once did, making life better with 100 extra jump shots. If only it were that simple.

    "When you've got the ball in your hands," he was saying Thursday, "it's a lot easier."

    There has been nothing easy about managing the Pacers. Not since Nov. 19, 2004. The brawl in the Palace with the Detroit Pistons, which wrecked the Indiana roster — starting with chief hothead Ron Artest — and sent the franchise into a dive from which it has never recovered. Not to this very day.

    "To see it all just get torn apart in five minutes just broke my heart," Bird said. "My life hasn't been the same since then. But that was a long time ago. There have been a few things come up since then."

    Injuries, disappointments, one sorry case of knuckleheaded off-court judgment after another. Plus, defeat.

    It is never a good sign when a front-office leader has to say, as Bird did the other day after a man was arrested on a murder charge upon leaving the home of forward Shawne Williams: "We've got to be very clear on this — we don't want our players hanging around with murderers."

    So he struggles with issues he has never before faced, and takes incoming shots he has never before taken.

    "This," he said "has been a little overwhelming."

    Surely, there must be days when he feels cornered and beaten — something he never felt in all those magical nights in Boston Garden, or the Olympics, or when he coached the Pacers to their only NBA Finals in 2000. A moment when everything seems too much.

    "Not yet."

    That is the point. Think Bird was determined when the Celtics were down two in the final minute against the Lakers? Hear him now.

    "Now it's personal," he said. "It's personal because we've lost a lot of fans, we've had a lot of players get themselves in situations, and for me to run away — I ain't running away from this. If the owner tells me, I'll leave. But I'm going to fix this thing."

    Fine. But how?

    "We know we've got to make changes. Everybody says blow it up and start over. I'm not into a 10-year rebuilding plan. We've got a lot of good players but no great players. I think we have to build around that.

    "I've never lost. I've never been around losing. The thing I worry about most here is if you lose year after year after year, I think it poisons your players. They get used to it. I'll never get used to it."

    There is a complication, of course. Some of the players are not like him — not even close. To listen to Bird is to listen to a man trying to understand what has happened in his game.

    "The one thing I found out over the past three or four years, you can bring in the (team) president, you can bring in all the FBI agents, you can talk to the players until they don't hear you anymore. They're still going to do what they're going to do, and that's what bothers me more than anything.

    "You think you've got them on the same page, you think they understand you, but they really don't."

    "Getting a call at 6 in the morning that one of your players has been involved in something, you get this feeling your stomach, this nauseating feeling. Knowing it's here in Indiana, where I grew up, it just tears me apart."

    So he intends to make it better, vows to make it better.

    "That would be as satisfying as anything I've ever done," he said. "You see guys win championships, guys have great games — I've been there and done that. I haven't taken a team that has been down and built it back up."

    But basketball has a clock, and it is ticking for him. There are thousands of hearts and minds to win back. Who would have dreamed any basketball team of Larry Bird's would ever have to do that in Indiana?
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

    Interesting article. The funny thing is that Bird references players getting poisoned by losing. I understand where he is coming from, and I agree with him, but players, especially young players, can be poisoned by bad influences also. I am not looking to trade one cancer for another, but if Bird wants to keep the good eggs on this team, then he is going to have to surgically remove the bad ones.
    When you're playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you'll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor.
    -Pat Riley

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    • #3
      Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

      Is there a link to this article?

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

        I feel for Larry, I really do. I'd love nothing more than for him to pull this off. This summer should tell me a lot.

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

          Let's see,.... just who are the Bad eggs. Tinsley, Daniels, Oneal, Harrison, Williams, Diogu.
          That leaves some good players that we can build around???

          This whole team is barely competing with the Milwaukee's, and Clippers of the league. I say we package the good with the bad and rebuild.

          I also think Bird needs to either go back to the coaches bench, or go out the door. He is not a good G.M.
          He proved that in Boston, and he's now verified it here.
          Protect the Promise!!!!

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

            Found a link Mal

            http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colum...d-pacers_N.htm
            When you're playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you'll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor.
            -Pat Riley

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

              Basically, the Pacers are going to be a middle of the road team for another 1-2 years after this year. At that point, Jermaine and Jamaal's contracts, as one of my friends described it, "go from being very undesirable, to very desirable". No one's going to care about them as players...why would you, when they're in street clothes half of the year every year? People are going to care about their expiring contracts. We may hold on to them to let them expire, or we may shuffle them to get building blocks that we need from teams looking for cap room. But, Jermaine's contract isn't going anywhere, and the Simon's aren't paying the luxury tax, so anyone who thinks a massive overhaul and face change is coming anytime sooner than the end of next season is expecting things that aren't really feasible.

              Jermaine is not going to stay true to his word and opt out after this year, even though this year has been precisely what he outlined as being worthy of opting out in order to be fair to the franchise.

              Why in the world we ever gave a guy with that little in the way of leadership a max contract is beyond me. That is a mistake that I guarantee you will not see Larry let happen again.

              The Indiana Pacers will start fresh when Jermaine and Jamaal are gone. Until then, we'll be stuck in this cycle.
              Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team. -- Scottie Pippen

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              • #8
                Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

                Originally posted by brich View Post
                Found a link Mal

                http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colum...d-pacers_N.htm
                Thanks; I'll paste that in to the original.

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

                  Originally posted by HOOPFANATIC View Post
                  Let's see,.... just who are the Bad eggs. Tinsley, Daniels, Oneal, Harrison, Williams, Diogu.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

                    Originally posted by Mal View Post
                    Well, that actually might go a long way in explaining the lack of playing time.

                    I never considered him to be a malcontent, but there may be something to this.


                    Basketball isn't played with computers, spreadsheets, and simulations. ChicagoJ 4/21/13

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

                      Originally posted by Peck View Post
                      Well, that actually might go a long way in explaining the lack of playing time.

                      I never considered him to be a malcontent, but there may be something to this.
                      It was kept pretty quiet when he was with the Warriors and Ike was never known as someone to make waves, but Nellie was known to give him an earful:

                      TIP-INS: Nelson took out some of his frustration on forward Ike Diogu with 4:05 left in the fourth quarter, calling a timeout and striding out on the court to chew out Diogu for a good 15 seconds. On the previous play, Diogu and Mike Dunleavy had gotten into what Diogu termed "a miscommunication" on defense that allowed Jason Kapono to score two of his 27 points. "He needs to step up and have the onus on him when he makes mistakes and not try to blame everybody all the time," Nelson said of Diogu. "He's a blamer, and I just had enough of it. So he's going to have to grow up and stop that." Said Diogu: "He just said that it wasn't acceptable arguing between teammates."

                      http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...4/ai_n17077821

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

                        Originally posted by brich View Post
                        Found a link Mal

                        http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colum...d-pacers_N.htm
                        Thanks

                        Sorry I forgot to add it to the post.

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

                          Bird hasn't proven himself here, but we could have had the Bill Parcells of basketball and these guys still would have destroyed his reputation. At least Bird is determined to fix this problem. He seems to have a lot of confidence in himself, which is a good thing.

                          The Indiana Pacers will start fresh when Jermaine and Jamaal are gone. Until then, we'll be stuck in this cycle.
                          -jcouts
                          Your right, we all need to find something or some player to cheer for because this team has become the NBA's landfill and we are not going anywhere soon. Unless there is a miracle of some sort, nobody can quickly reassemble a potential champ of this team.

                          I like this article because it has to be hard on Bird to deal with this scrutiny. Our players play the game like nobody cares and/or likes them. Which, by reading this forum, it is very true. Our fans our terrible. There wasn't anyone cheering at game 6 against Detriot in the year we won 61 games. I was there thinking damn we'll never do anything with this fanbase. Do we really care? Am I allowed to post anything positive?

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

                            Originally posted by HOOPFANATIC View Post
                            Let's see,.... just who are the Bad eggs. Tinsley, Daniels, Oneal, Harrison, Williams, Diogu.
                            That leaves some good players that we can build around???

                            This whole team is barely competing with the Milwaukee's, and Clippers of the league. I say we package the good with the bad and rebuild.

                            I also think Bird needs to either go back to the coaches bench, or go out the door. He is not a good G.M.
                            He proved that in Boston, and he's now verified it here.
                            You know, if you take a team's best player out for the year, what you're left with would rarely be more than what we have now. You take Lebron off Cleveland, are they even a playoff team? But with him they made the finals. You lose Garnett off Boston, Paul Pierce would not take that team to the promised land by himself. On and on. So the fact that we don't have a star is the bigger issue. You put as star on this team, and let Dunlavy, Foster, etc be role players, we'd be dynamite. But when your role players have to take on a starring role, you're in trouble. This team is not totally lacking in talent. We need to add to them a star player to maximize their potential. That's why making the playoffs would be more of a hinderance to this team, as opposed to getting a pick in the top 7-10.

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Re: Bird struggles to rebuild Pacers - From USA Today

                              You know where I think Bird has failed? His own leadership. I don't think he's a good leader without being able to do it himself.

                              As a coach it was three years with a bunch of vets who were sick of the earful and bully pulpit of Larry Brown. Jax, leader. Reggie, leader by example. Dale, Rik, Mullin, McKey, all mature players who had mostly always been pure grinders (barring Mullin's early drinking).

                              For strategy he had Rick and Harter, but there was no leadership or teaching required.

                              Contrast that to now. We are so focused on the moves, the roster itself, that we have stopped thinking about the ENVIRONMENT. Maybe he comes off as lax, or out of touch. Perhaps there hasn't been internal accountability.

                              Those behaviors set the tone and determine what players feel comfortable with.

                              I'm sure Peck would cite JO's role in this, or lack of. And I would agree with that with one caveat, who says it has to be him anyway. He's a player, not the coach, not the GM. At some point the culture extends beyond any one given player, and that comes from the organization itself and how it's being run. In fact it's Bird calling out JO in the press that makes me question his own leadership. I don't think that sets the right tone, it doesn't suggest an interaction of mutual respect and responsibility.


                              As JO pointed out a few years ago, he and perhaps other players were put off by Bird being in Europe during the Ron crisis. There was a sense of hand-off GM work in play. If this is accurate since it's hard to be sure on this insider stuff, then that's the kind of thing that could foster a sense of "this place isn't serious, I do what I want". Or better put, a feeling that if they aren't interested in you and your situation then why should you be worried about being involved yourself.


                              This is conjecture, but I'm trying to come up with the math that takes hard workers and good kids and smart people and turns it into the results we've seen. It's oversimplifying it to assume there just a bunch of thugs.
                              Last edited by Naptown_Seth; 03-09-2008, 10:22 PM.

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