Larry Bird is widely considered one of the greatest basketball players ever. On the court, he was an unstoppable freak of nature who carried out his will against opponents.
As a front-office executive, though, Larry hasn’t had nearly as much success. In fact, over the past few years, the Indiana Pacers haven’t done anything of note. Now, Bird is apparently no longer an active member of the organization as the Pacers’ president of basketball operations, Kevin Pritchard, confirmed on Monday:
“Yeah, he’s not active. But look, Larry is a good friend of mine and he’s a good friend of Rick’s (Carlisle). At any time we need help, we know where to look. He’s always available.”
Of course, Bird was once the president of Basketball Operations for the team before he stepped down due to reasons that are still somewhat obscure. He was thought to still have a role as a special advisor to the club before that was debunked.
And while nobody has heard from Larry in some time, he did share a bit of his side of the story a few years back.
“A published report indicated that I left my position as President of Basketball Operations in 2017 because ownership was not willing to spend “big money” and that it frustrated me enough to step aside. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Larry Bird said. “I want everyone to know I left there because it was time for me to move on from the Pacers. I had worked with Kevin Pritchard and at that time I felt Kevin was ready to take over and he has proven that. I can’t thank Herb and Mel Simon, along with Pacers Sports & Entertainment, for the opportunities to, at first, coach, and then later move into the front office.”
Larry legend has been pretty quiet in his post-NBA life. For such a big-time NBA legend and star, it’s almost surprising how little we’ve heard from Bird over the past few years.
He’s probably out there living his best life now that all of his ties to the NBA are almost completely gone.
