You could see it in his face after the Pacers’ Game 3 collapse against the Cavaliers.
You could almost see the steam erupting from his head and hear his thoughts of how he, McHale, Parrish, Ainge and DJ would never let this happen in their hay day. The frustration and stress which go into running an NBA franchise is hard to explain unless you’re in that position, so we can only imagine what Larry Bird has been dealing with as he tried to navigate a tough season for the Pacers which included questions of Paul George’s future and, ultimately, the sweeping by the Cavs in round 1 of the playoffs.
Well today it all came to a head as it was revealed that Bird would be stepping down as the team’s President. Kevin Pritchard will over the basketball operations for the franchise, but Bird will remain on as a consultant.
Larry Bird is stepping down as Pacers president, league sources tell @TheVertical. Kevin Pritchard will take over basketball operations.
Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) April 28, 2017
Larry Legend coached the Pacers from 1997 – 2000 where, after winning Coach of the Year in 1998, he became the first man to win both League MVP and Coach of the Year. After the 2000 season, he resigned from the head coach position as he had promised to do when he first took the job. He returned to the team in 2003 as the President of Basketball Operations and was named the NBA Executive of the Year in 2012. He stepped down from the post in June of 2012, citing health reasons, and then returned to the team a year later in the same capacity.
