Larry Bird steps down; Kevin Pritchard becomes pacers GM

[Nick]

Yay! Kevin Pritchard has a job again! This should be fun.

For the uneducated, Kevin Pritchard is the guy who built the Blazers team that at one stage had Oden, Roy, Aldridge, and a few others, ready to dominate the West. Granted, injuries fucked that all up. BUT, this guy is a draft day dynamo. He makes a lot of trades on draft day, and always makes the smart moves. He used the OKC model before OKC used the OKC model.

This is a good thing for Pacers fans, and also a good thing for draft day enthusiasts, as he is not afraid to shake things up.

[rise]

Good news for the Pacers.

KP should have tried being the GM of a rebuilding team. I'm not sure if he can do anything too drastic to the Pacers.

[shadowgrin]

Good news for the Pacers.

KP should have tried being the GM of a rebuilding team. I'm not sure if he can do anything too drastic to the Pacers.

Why be drastic when building a team?

[Murat]

Legendary players shouldn't be managers. See Larry Bird. Everyone knows Isiah's fail.

But the horrible players should be. I'm curious about Darko Milicic managing Pistons.

Good luck Pacers... you are lucky of Pritch.

[_Steve_]

I thought Pacers were satisfied with their executive of the year and here I stand corrected...

[shadowgrin]

The Pacers didn't fire Larry Bird. Bird stepped down. Like what he did when he coached the team.

[_Steve_]

The Pacers didn't fire Larry Bird. Bird stepped down. Like what he did when he coached the team.

Must have missed that part...

[Moz]

Legendary players shouldn't be managers.

It says here that Pritchard could replace David Morway and maybe Donnie Walsh will replace Bird

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/eye-on-basketball/19424332/reports-larry-bird-out-donnie-walsh-in-with-indiana-pacers

[Andrew]

I'm glad to see that there are articles out there that mention Bird flying the coop. And one that opts for leaving the nest instead. It's encouraging to see that journalistic integrity is alive and well.

As far as the whole "legendary players shouldn't be managers" suggestion, I'd say that Bird did a pretty good job with the Pacers, while Jerry West still stands as the most successful example of an all-time great turned GM. I don't know if you'd call Joe Dumars legendary and his recent track record hasn't been fantastic, but he was a reasonably significant player of his era - an All-Star and a Finals MVP in 1989 - with success in the Pistons' front office for a good part of the last decade, so he's worth mentioning here as well.

On paper, Pritchard is a very good hire for the Pacers though. If they can keep a couple of their key players, they've got a bright future.