http://www.indystar.com/article/2011...ch-Jim-O-Brien
Written by
Bob Kravitz
This was the owner's call, pure and simple. This was Herb Simon rolling into team president Larry Bird's office last week and telling the Hoosier legend that a head coaching change must be made.
The Indiana Pacers will try to sell it otherwise, and even Bird tried to sell it Sunday afternoon as his decision, but that's a complete fabrication. Simon wanted coach Jim O'Brien gone after the team's winless West Coast trip, and when that didn't happen, Simon insisted upon O'Brien's ouster after Wednesday's miserable home performance against Orlando.
"Mr. Simon was out there on the West Coast trip and at the time, I told him I was comfortable with Jimmy," Bird said Sunday. "But I wanted to see how we played on the trip. Then we came home against Orlando and the game was over after the first three minutes, so that's when I really started to think we needed to do something.
"And I called Mr. Simon up and told him and he said, 'Whatever you want to do.' So here we are."
Hmmm.
Let's just say the bull droppings left at the fieldhouse Sunday weren't all left by the Professional Bull Riders event.
That said, it was the right move, the overdue move. This was the right time to make it, with plenty of time to turn this thing around and make a playoff run, and with season-ticket renewal deadlines quickly approaching.
Which brings us to the next question (among many) . . .
Even if Simon wants Bird back next season -- and that's very much up in the air, and should be up in the air -- does Bird really want to come back?
He has made a lot of noise recently about returning to a life of leisure, and he can't be at all happy that his hand-picked coach, O'Brien, was blown out by the team's owner. Remember, Bird told The Star's Mike Wells recently that O'Brien was going to remain the rest of the season, and there was nothing that could change his mind.
Now O'Brien is out the door.
You figure it out.
Now don't dismiss Frank Vogel right away as some longtime assistant who is merely keeping the chair warm for, say, Mike Brown. (Although, if it doesn't work out for Vogel and the Pacers, let me place my vote right now for Brown, the former Pacers assistant and Cavaliers head coach, who is as sharp as they come.)
If Vogel were taking over a hopeless team, the feeling would be that he's another dead coach walking. But we've seen too many glimpses of excellence from this group to dismiss it, or dismiss him, altogether. If Vogel can straighten out the rotations, maybe light a fire under his players and get Roy Hibbert back to playing the way he did that first month of the season, this team should make a run at that final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
There's some history that suggests this could work.
In January of the 2003-04 season, the New Jersey Nets were 22-20 and languishing under Byron Scott. The Nets replaced him with longtime assistant (and former IU manager) Lawrence Frank, whose team won his first 13 games and ultimately went 25-15 over the last 40 games that season.
In the 2008 season, the Oklahoma City Thunder began 1-13 under P.J. Carlesimo. They fired him, brought in assistant Scott Brooks, and after a painfully slow start -- the Thunder moved to just 3-29 -- his team went 20-30 the rest of the way and set the table for the next year's turnaround.
So what do we know about Vogel?
Not much.
But he certainly looks and sounds the part, and during his introduction Sunday, he brandished a confidence that bordered on cocky -- the good kind of cocky. O'Brien was relentlessly negative, like a columnist, really. A positive voice might get some play, both in the locker room and throughout this city.
Look, we're not here to bury O'Brien, who has been buried countless times here and in the city. He did some good things and helped change the team's culture, and he got them to play reasonably hard most of the time. To be fair to O'Brien, he never had a playoff-worthy roster, until maybe this year -- and only because the Pacers play in the East.
But this season in particular, he was faced with a conundrum: I need to win to keep my job, but to keep my job, I feel as if I have to play my veterans instead of the younger players.
It was a doomed proposition from the start. His use of personnel was difficult to fathom, and his acerbic personal style, which most players found chafing at best, left his team cold.
Since Bird had no interest in coming down from his office to coach, the choice of Vogel was the second-best option.
So this became a referendum, mostly on Bird, then on his players, and then on Vogel. They won't have O'Brien to kick around anymore. The excuses have been excised.
The owner, the one who made this move, will be watching very closely.
Written by
Bob Kravitz
This was the owner's call, pure and simple. This was Herb Simon rolling into team president Larry Bird's office last week and telling the Hoosier legend that a head coaching change must be made.
The Indiana Pacers will try to sell it otherwise, and even Bird tried to sell it Sunday afternoon as his decision, but that's a complete fabrication. Simon wanted coach Jim O'Brien gone after the team's winless West Coast trip, and when that didn't happen, Simon insisted upon O'Brien's ouster after Wednesday's miserable home performance against Orlando.
"Mr. Simon was out there on the West Coast trip and at the time, I told him I was comfortable with Jimmy," Bird said Sunday. "But I wanted to see how we played on the trip. Then we came home against Orlando and the game was over after the first three minutes, so that's when I really started to think we needed to do something.
"And I called Mr. Simon up and told him and he said, 'Whatever you want to do.' So here we are."
Hmmm.
Let's just say the bull droppings left at the fieldhouse Sunday weren't all left by the Professional Bull Riders event.
That said, it was the right move, the overdue move. This was the right time to make it, with plenty of time to turn this thing around and make a playoff run, and with season-ticket renewal deadlines quickly approaching.
Which brings us to the next question (among many) . . .
Even if Simon wants Bird back next season -- and that's very much up in the air, and should be up in the air -- does Bird really want to come back?
He has made a lot of noise recently about returning to a life of leisure, and he can't be at all happy that his hand-picked coach, O'Brien, was blown out by the team's owner. Remember, Bird told The Star's Mike Wells recently that O'Brien was going to remain the rest of the season, and there was nothing that could change his mind.
Now O'Brien is out the door.
You figure it out.
Now don't dismiss Frank Vogel right away as some longtime assistant who is merely keeping the chair warm for, say, Mike Brown. (Although, if it doesn't work out for Vogel and the Pacers, let me place my vote right now for Brown, the former Pacers assistant and Cavaliers head coach, who is as sharp as they come.)
If Vogel were taking over a hopeless team, the feeling would be that he's another dead coach walking. But we've seen too many glimpses of excellence from this group to dismiss it, or dismiss him, altogether. If Vogel can straighten out the rotations, maybe light a fire under his players and get Roy Hibbert back to playing the way he did that first month of the season, this team should make a run at that final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
There's some history that suggests this could work.
In January of the 2003-04 season, the New Jersey Nets were 22-20 and languishing under Byron Scott. The Nets replaced him with longtime assistant (and former IU manager) Lawrence Frank, whose team won his first 13 games and ultimately went 25-15 over the last 40 games that season.
In the 2008 season, the Oklahoma City Thunder began 1-13 under P.J. Carlesimo. They fired him, brought in assistant Scott Brooks, and after a painfully slow start -- the Thunder moved to just 3-29 -- his team went 20-30 the rest of the way and set the table for the next year's turnaround.
So what do we know about Vogel?
Not much.
But he certainly looks and sounds the part, and during his introduction Sunday, he brandished a confidence that bordered on cocky -- the good kind of cocky. O'Brien was relentlessly negative, like a columnist, really. A positive voice might get some play, both in the locker room and throughout this city.
Look, we're not here to bury O'Brien, who has been buried countless times here and in the city. He did some good things and helped change the team's culture, and he got them to play reasonably hard most of the time. To be fair to O'Brien, he never had a playoff-worthy roster, until maybe this year -- and only because the Pacers play in the East.
But this season in particular, he was faced with a conundrum: I need to win to keep my job, but to keep my job, I feel as if I have to play my veterans instead of the younger players.
It was a doomed proposition from the start. His use of personnel was difficult to fathom, and his acerbic personal style, which most players found chafing at best, left his team cold.
Since Bird had no interest in coming down from his office to coach, the choice of Vogel was the second-best option.
So this became a referendum, mostly on Bird, then on his players, and then on Vogel. They won't have O'Brien to kick around anymore. The excuses have been excised.
The owner, the one who made this move, will be watching very closely.
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