Well, Larry, did you enjoy your one-year vacation? The Indiana Pacers announced today that Larry Bird’s one year sabbatical will end and he will again be the team’s president. The team made the news official on their website this afternoon.
“Larry Bird’s one-year sabbatical from the Pacers’ presidency will officially end on Thursday, when the Pacers announce his return at a 10 a.m. press conference at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.”
Bird returns to the team that gave the eventual NBA Champion Miami Heat nearly everything they could handle, pushing them to the limit in an exciting 7 game Eastern Conference Championship Series. Even though Bird was not working with the team last year, don’t think that he didn’t have a huge influence on that series. Make no mistake about it, the Pacers who went 49-32 this year and were the number 1 seed in the East are a team that had Bird’s fingerprints all over them.
“The year off gave me a chance to reflect, to rest, to take care of some health issues and it re-charged me,” Bird said in an official statement released by the Pacers. “Donnie and Kevin did a great job and I will lean on both heavily as we move forward toward the goal of competing for a championship.”
Bird has served as Indiana’s president and GM since 2003. Donnie Walsh took over Bird’s role as President last season, while Kevin Pritchard took over as General Manager. The two shepherded the team in Bird’s absence, but major moves to the core that Bird had built were really not needed. Pritchard will remain GM going forward and Walsh is expected to remain with the Pacers, as an official consultant.
“I met with Larry when he wanted to leave last year and I said I would do this until he was ready to come back,” said Walsh, who had run the New York Knicks’ basketball operations from 2008-11. “Well, he’s ready and I couldn’t be happier. I had a great year last year with this team. It is a great group of guys who have the potential for some great things and to remain a part of this, with two people who I love to work with and respect greatly, is very special.”
And so, now with the gang all back together the Pacers look ahead to building a team that can take down the Miami Heat in the East and go all the way to winning the NBA Championship. The next steps in doing so will happen at Tomorrow night’s NBA Draft, and in Free Agency, where the Pacers must either re-sign David West or find a replacement.
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