http://www.espn.com/espn/now?nowId=1-19264929
stepping down as team president, Tom Pritchard to take over
stepping down as team president, Tom Pritchard to take over
Larry Bird out...
- Thread starter outside shooter
- Start date
Kevin Pritchard is taking over. However, Tom used to work in marketing for the Pacers. Still might.
This is another example of why the cuts at ESPN.com made sense. This information was on Twitter 30 minutes before ESPN.com posted it.
You mean former IU basketball player and dunk artist against the Gophers Tom Pritchard is going to take over the Pacers?
Tom Crean was the Big Ten coach of the year last year. Does that mean he's a good coach? Larry Bird is a jerk. He lived in the same dorm as Kent Benson and me his freshman year at IU and then blamed Kent in a book for why he left IU. He said Kent bullied him.
I'm convinced Bird came to IU expecting to have his grades given to him. When he discovered he had to attend classes and take exams like everybody else, he realized he wasn't college material. It would not surprise me if Indiana State University gave him his grades.
I am good friends with Kent and he is a great guy. Everybody liked Kent when we were at IU and people like Scott May, Bobby Wilkerson and Quinn Buckner will tell you he was a great teammate.
Do you know these things about Bird? He cussed out the Indiana All-Star coach during the Indiana/Kentucky All-Star game when the coach tried to play him for the first time late in a game. When he played for ISU, he spit into the crowd while playing at either New Mexico or New Mexico State.
Bird fathered a baby that he won't recognize as his child even though it was proven she was his daughter. The girl was on the Oprah Winfrey show a few years ago and shared her experience on television.
I have some friends who work for the Pacers. They said Bird bullied the players. He also refused to cooperate with the media.
Bird's biggest problem is that he seemingly tried to rebuild the roster every few years to match up with whatever the trend was in the league at the time. Ended up with a bunch of pieces that didn't fit together and didn't fit the style he was aiming for. Would have been good if he would have set an "identity" for the Pacers, built the roster over time for that identity and put them up against other trends in the league.
You hit this out of the park. When we were trying to be the Golden State Warriors it didn't work because we didn't have Thompson,Curry,and Green. Well, we could have had Green in the draft......oh nevermind.
It's going to be tough for anyone to match up with GSW playing their style, when you don't have the players they do. I think the Pacers would have done much better to stay with their defensive identity and try to find good two-way players in the draft that could play in that system, while helping to improve their offense.
