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?
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?
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