Now in his eighth season as an executive with the Indiana Pacers, Larry Bird still enjoys watching the team’s young players develop – but he also isn’t certain to return next year. His contract as the Pacers’ president expires on Aug. 1, and he said he’ll sit down with the franchise’s owner, Herb Simon, before then to address his future.
“You never know,” Bird said. “The owner might want whatever he thinks. I might not want to come back. I really don’t know at this stage, but I do enjoy it.
“I tell everybody I got one of the best jobs in the world. You got to take the good with the bad, but once it turns, it’s going to turn good.
“I’ll talk to [Simon] about that after the season. But we have a great owner. I respect him. He’s great for the league and has been very good to me. I’ve been with him 11 years. But whatever he thinks, we’ll sit down and talk about it.”
Bird ran the Pacers with current New York Knicks president Donnie Walsh until Walsh stepped down in March 2008. Bird has made some strong moves since Walsh’s departure, re-signing forward Danny Granger(notes), acquiring point guard Darren Collison(notes) and drafting center Roy Hibbert(notes) and promising rookie guard Paul George(notes). But with a 16-23 record, the Pacers are barely hanging on to the Eastern Conference’s eighth seed. Bird sat through another close loss this week at Golden State.
Link- http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=m ... zzer012111
Interesting piece. Seems like Bird is being active in trying to make a trade for this season. I do think Bird will stay. He has unfinished business. He knows this team is real close of turning the corner. I could see him stepping away and putting a more workload on Morway (or hiring someone else) and just stepping back and watching things from afar as most team president's do. But i do think he'll be back, the Simon's love him.