Larry Bird Is No Longer President Of The Indiana Pacers
Damn, Lebron ending seasons and forcing Larry Legend to just say fuck it and step down as President of the Pacers. Sad stuff.
Bird’s professional relationship with the Pacers goes back nearly 20 years. As a coach, he was actually pretty good, finishing with a 147-67 record and a Finals appearance in 1999-2000. He won a Coach of the Year award, but for some reason only wanted to coach for three years. Bird has always been considered sort of a weird guy, and this whole thing sort of fit that narrative.
Bird became a Pacers executive for the first time in 2003 and held that position until right before the 2012 season when he stepped down due to health concerns. It wouldn’t last as Bird came back in 2013 and has held the position until today. His history as an executive I wouldn’t say was as successful as his coaching, but he did win an Executive of the Year award in 2011.
Aside from Paul George, his drafting history is what I would call mixed at best. To be fair, he’s only drafted in the lottery four times during his tenure, and those players were Jerryd Bayless (traded for Jarrett Jack, Josh McRoberts and Brandon Rush), Tyler Hansborough, Paul George, and Myles Turner. I’d say that’s 2 out of 4 hits. Bird also did a great job finding value in the mid rounds with guys like Danny Granger, and snagging Lance in the second round seemed to work out to some degree. His biggest regret came in 2011 when he traded the pick that became Kawhi Leonard for George Hill. This isn’t to say Hill isn’t a good PG, but he isn’t even on the team anymore and as we all know Kawhi is a fucking basketball robot.
In terms of team success, the Pacers simply couldn’t get over the hump aka past Lebron. After missing the playoffs for the mid 2000s, since 2010 the Pacers have been a playoff constant (only missed in 2014). They’ve been the #1 seed a couple times each failing in the ECF to Lebron. Then there was this year and the Lebron sweep. I can only imagine the sleepless nights Lebron has caused The Legend. As the Pacers move forward they do have a stud player in Turner, but PG13 has basically said he’s going to LA, they need to make a decision on Teague, and all they have in this year’s draft is there own pick, which will be middle of the first round. Not surprising Bird is walking away from this whole situation.
I wonder if we’ll ever hear the reasoning why Larry is stepping down, and frankly I’m a little sad the Celtics don’t have an in with a team that will probably be blowing things up and has some valuable pieces. Either way this is a big time shock for the NBA world and I’m sad this now means we have to retire the disappointed Larry Bird executive GIFs. Loved these
