By Peter May, Special to Yahoo! Sports 4 hours, 36 minutes ago
INDIANAPOLIS - DECEMBER 7: Jim O'Brien, head coach of the Indiana Pacers, directs his team from the sidelines during the game between the Pacers and the Boston Celtics at Conseco Fieldhouse on December 7, 2008 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and condition of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: 2008 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)
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They’re still in recovery mode in Indianapolis, seemingly one of the least-likely locales to be designated Ground Zero for Players Behaving Badly. It has been this way for more than four years – and rebuilding the brand, once one of the NBA’s strongest, and rebuilding the image, once one of the NBA’s brightest, remains the daily duty of Indiana icon Larry Bird, the team’s president of basketball operations.
Progress has been incremental, but Bird believes the franchise has turned the corner, jettisoning the malcontents and malfeasance makers while welcoming a group of players whom the good folks of Indiana can embrace.
“We’re trying to put together and develop a team that the fans want to support,” Bird said. “They want to see our players do well on the court and stay out of trouble off the court. Which makes sense.”
Out of almost nowhere, the Pacers became the outlaws of the NBA, taking over that dubious distinction from the Portland Trail Blazers. It started on the court, with the still-lingering incident at the Detroit Pistons’ Palace of Auburn Hills in November 2004, when two Pacers (Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson) went into the stands to fight fans and a third (Jermaine O’Neal) was seen delivering an on-court haymaker to a charging fan. All three were hit with huge suspensions, Artest’s for the remainder of the season.
I remember visiting with Bird in April 2005, when the NCAA women’s Final Four was being held in Indianapolis. The Pacers had somehow made it through the season despite the many suspensions – they would also upset the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs a month later – but Bird, then working as Donnie Walsh’s deputy, wondered how long it would take for the franchise to recover.
“People think it’s already over,” he said then. “But, for us, it isn’t. I don’t know how long it will take.”
He says today he still doesn’t.
“I knew it was going to be long time,” he said. “The problem for us here is we lived it every single day. Other teams, they saw it and then went about their business. It didn’t affect them. They forgot about it. But we didn’t. We couldn’t. It hurt this franchise big-time.
“I knew then that we were going to have to go through major changes. No one likes to be part of a rebuilding program. But we had to make the changes we made in order to be able to move forward. Which we did.”
Artest was traded. Jackson, who later had some firearms issues, was traded. Jamaal Tinsley, another player who had a knack for finding trouble, was sent to the Indiana version of Elba. While still on the roster, his nameplate has been taken down in the locker room and he is, as they say, available. He has played his last game as a Pacer.
Link- http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=A ... &type=lgns
Very good article on the Indiana Pacers and how Larry Bird has turned the team around. We ain't winning, but we're staying out of trouble and playing hard each night, like Bird promised. We've come a long way, despite our record.