Indiana Pacers decide to retain Larry Bird as their President
On Tuesday, the Indiana Pacers announced to retain Larry Bird as a president after he had a meeting with the owner, Herb Simons in Los Angeles. The legendary former NBA player will continue to serve the team as in charge of basketball operations.
Simons said after the announcement."I'm quite pleased with the success we experienced this past season and pleased with the direction our team is going. I'm glad Larry is staying to help us continue in the positive direction we are going."
In the last year of Larry’s contract, Indiana managed to conclude the 2010-2011 season on a high note by making their first post-season appearance since 2006. Indiana is one youngest teams in the league with all the starters, except the twenty eight year old veteran Danny Granger, not more than 25 years. However, Bird transformed a young team into a competitive unit this season. Larry’s hard work and dedication paid off and if they can add one or two superstars in their roster, the future looks bright for the Pacers.
Simons said on Larry’s tenure in a recent interview, "He gave us a three-year plan, and I think he's lived up to his three-year plan. He said it would be tough going, but by the third year, he thought we could probably make the playoffs, which he did, and that we would have cap space to build upon the core group that he's established."
The team officials also announced to keep David Morey as the general manager.
With the start of the season, things went sloppy for Bird. Indiana was 17-27 when the franchise parted ways with the coach Jim O'Brien. However interim coach Frank Vogel infused incredible energy in the line-up and guided the Pacers into the play-offs after leading the team to 20 victories and 18 defeats.
The Pacers finished as the eighth seeds in the top-heavy Eastern Conference during the regular season and took on the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the playoffs. Although the Pacers gave the hottest team of the season a run for their money, they failed to overpower the brilliance of Derrick Rose and the Bulls and lost the series 4-1.
The franchise has yet to decide if the 37-year-old Frank will be a part of their planning for the next season.
"I hope we can keep our core basketball group together, and one of my first priorities will be to address the coaching situation," Bird said.
Boston Celtics legend Bird was hired in 2003 as the team’s president and shared the decisions regarding basketball with Donnie Walsh, who was the CEO at that time. Later, Larry took full control of the decisions, when Walsh left the franchise after 2007-2008 season and became the president of New York Knicks. Indiana went 36-46 in the next season and 32-50 in 2009-2010. However, Bird finally managed to take his team into the play-offs this season with 37 wins.
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