Game #63 Recap – Forget All About That Macho Tish, and Learn How to Play Guitar

by Tim Donahue on March 7, 2010 at 12:21 pm

Play Guitar by John Mellencamp

Or basketball.  Either will do.

Don’t get me wrong.  It was nice, for a change, to see a little friction, baby.  It was a somewhat pleasant to see the opposing team and fans treat the Pacers with something other than utter disinterest and contempt.

Still, just like everything else that happened this week, and this season, it didn’t accomplish anything.  A Steve Nash jumper that coincided with what was accurately described to me by @missbumptious as a “slap fight” put the Suns up six.  Over the remainder of the game, that lead got no smaller than 4 and no larger than 10.  It was a perfect microcosm for the season.  The Pacers ran around in circles, flapping their arms wildly, going exactly nowhere.

However, the players, as usual, seem to have missed the point.  From Earl Watson:

“I think we have a reputation of being soft,” Watson said. “We’re not going to just give in and let anybody do what they want to do. Our team is far from soft.”

Earl, buddy, you guys don’t have the reputation of being soft.  You guys are soft.  You can’t spend 62 games demonstrating your willingness to give in and let anybody do what they want, then puff out your chest and deny it.  Besides, the team you’re going to prove your toughness against is the Phoenix Suns?  And, you think squaring off against Channing Frye is going to re-establish your sense of manhood?  Really?  Look out, Earl, there’s a wad of wet toilet paper in the locker room that’s looking menacing.

Danny chimed in with:

“I love it, I absolutely love it,” Granger said. “Whenever you get a whole auditorium chanting, ‘You suck,’ it’s pretty nice.”

Yeah, great.  I’d love it a lot more if it you guys didn’t spend so much time giving them evidence that they were right.  Danny, you have been christened “The Gift” by Pacer fans, and you deserve it in so many, many ways.  But, sorry, bunkie, you’ve got to get past this silliness.  If you’re going to shush the crowd, you need to do better than 6 points and 3 fouls in the fourth.  You need to do more than taunt the crowd while missing two-thirds of your 4th quarter field goals and one of your (only) two free throws.

I do respect the urge to stick up for your teammates.  I don’t fully understand what caused Watson to slap Frye’s hands away twice, but Frye’s decision to react after Watson turned away by shoving a man 11 inches shorter and over 50 lbs. lighter than himself both deserved Danny’s immediate reaction and confirmed my assessment of where Channing fits on the badass scale.  However, one relatively silly act of (forgive my language) Mickey Mouse macho horse**** isn’t going to change the basic reality of the situation.

The Pacers are a bad basketball team.  The popular theory in Pacer land is that this state of affairs can be laid at Jim O’Brien’s feet.  Well, there’s certainly a pretty good case against him at this point.  The team continually falls behind early and gets blown out on a regular basis.  The rotations can only be described as schizophrenic, and he been unsuccessful in coming up with even a Plan B to address the abominable offensive performance.

This sentiment reached a fever pitch this week when O’Brien dismissed Josh McRoberts’ career high 15-point performance as “irrelevant.”  The comment was made after a spectacularly embarrassing loss to the Lakers, and set off a firestorm of criticism from fans and media alike.   That game was followed by three more losses, and the team certainly appears to headed nowhere but down.  We’re three years into O’Brien’s tenure, and for the first time in his NBA coaching career, one of his teams is significantly underperforming.  A locker room that was reportedly as good as the Pacers have ever had a scant year ago now bears a disheartening resemblance to the cesspools of 2005, 2006, & 2007.

So, yeah, O’Brien has probably outlived his usefulness and should be let go.  Now or at the end of the season doesn’t seem to matter all that much.

However, if we were to pretend that Jim O’Brien and his coach is the biggest problem this franchise, it would be delusional.  Consider:

  • Lack of Talent – Of 14 players on their roster, only Danny Granger is a bona fide NBA starter.  He’s at the point where he can either become a perennial All-Star, or hover on the fringes and become a player more known for what he can’t do than what he can.  While last year was an epiphany, this year has been a warning.  Besides Danny, only Roy looks like a guy who will evolve into a starter, and that’s far from a sure thing.  He is a player from another time, and it remains to be seen if he can ever exploit his strengths to a greater degree than opponents can exploit his relatively obvious weaknesses.  Beyond that, the veterans (Murphy, Foster, Watson, Ford, Dunleavy) are nothing more than placeholders.  The young players (Rush, Price, S. Jones, McRoberts) don’t look like much more than serviceable bench players.  Brandon Rush is a complete mystery.  He’s got offensive skills, but undercuts them with his timidity.  Defensively, he’s good straight up, but makes plenty of mistakes in his total defensive floor game to downgrade him to little more than above average overall.  Nobody knows what we have in Hansbrough, and worries that he may never return could be termed as extremely pessimistic, but, regrettably, not out of the realm of possibility.
  • Lack of Money – This isn’t just limited to not having the ability to bring in free agents.  The Pacers franchise are hemorrhaging money, and it’s always unclear as to how long Herb Simon will be willing and able to live with that.  This complicates things like the dismissal of O’Brien, which would result in paying two coaches next year.  However, the fevered reaction to O’Brien’s comments on McRoberts this week could threaten their pocketbooks more than paying two coaches.
  • Lack of Direction – The “three year plan” has been talked about ad nauseum.  Really, in the grand scheme of things, winning 26 games this year instead of 36 doesn’t affect the plan one way or the other.  Some could argue that it actually could help in the form of a high draft pick.  However, the way the fanbase has reacted to the performance indicates both a lack of understanding and a lack of faith in the three year plan.  The lack of understanding comes in the surprising expectations of continual improvement.  That was never the plan.  They were hoping to nurse the serviceable vets that they had, get some growth out the young players, and hopefully hang around playoff contention while they waited out the contract situation.  While they’re clearly not able to hang around playoff competition, they have no choice but to continue to wait out the contracts.  The lack of faith comes from the fact that the “three year plan” is starting to look more and more like this:

then-a-miracle-occurs-cartoon

So, you’ll forgive me if I am thoroughly unimpressed by some chest thumping and false machismo in yet another loss.

Pacers @ Suns
105 Score 113
6 Largest Lead 12
118.9 Offensive Efficiency 110.5
42.5% eFG% 48.5%
37.6% (35-93) FG% 43.9% (36-82)
34.6% (9/26) 3PT% 46.7% (7/15)
81.3% (26-32) FT% 85.0% (34/40)
44 (17) Rebounds (Off.) 58 (18)
10 (16) Turnovers (Points Led To) 14 (22)
34 Points in the Paint 42
13 Fast Break Points 11
17 Assists 14

272145_f496

Put ‘em up!  Put ‘em up!

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Game #62 Recap – Told ya

by Tim Donahue on March 6, 2010 at 2:41 pm

Indiana Pacers 114 – Denver Nuggets 122

————–

Sigh.

As I said yesterday, there wasn’t much to look forward to in last night’s game.  Sure, the score looks better than the twin 23-point losses from earlier this week, but in some ways, this may have been worse.

I’ m reminded of an old Far Side panel set on the plains of Africa.  In the foreground, there are two men in safari gear.  One man is lying on the ground, pith helmet askew, apparently dazed, while the other stands over him, arms akimbo.  A rhinocerous is wandering away through the savannah grass.   The caption says simply, “If he had respected you more as an enemy, he would have done more than slap you in the face.”

I would be shocked – shocked, I tell you – if anyone playing for the Nuggets last night thought for one nanosecond that they might lose that game.  They mostly drifted through the game, occasionally paying attention long enough to snuff the Pacers.  The Nuggets won this game with spurts.

  • A 13-3 run in the first to make it 20-11.
  • An 18-4 run bridging the first and second quarters to make it 44-28.
  • A 13-2 run late in the third to make it 97-79.

All that was done in about 11 and a half minutes of clock time.  While I’m sure the Pacers, to varying degrees, thought they might be able to steal this one, particularly after a McRoberts slam cut the lead to 82-76, I seriously doubt any of those feelings were held with anything approaching conviction.

Last night was pretty much extended garbage time.  The only reason I’m not telling you about how last night was the Pacers’ 26th double digit loss of the season, which is the third most in franchise history, is because Denver couldn’t be bothered to pay attention for even the majority of the game.  Even so, it took a 10-0 run by the Pacers in the last two minutes of the game to get this to single digits.  This was accomplished against a Nugget lineup featuring Johan Petro, Malik Allen, Anthony Carter, Joey Graham, and J.R. Smith.

At one point last night, I thought to myself, “Good lord, how bad has it gotten that this performance actually feels competitive?”

Dumpster Diving

  • Danny’s still a pretty good player, but it doesn’t matter – Since the break, Danny has returned to form, averaging 25.6 points and over 5 boards, but, much more importantly, shooting .481-.431-.918 (FG-3-FT).  Unfortunately, the team is 2-8.  Is this damning evidence of Danny’s deficiencies?  No.  The rest of the team is just that bad.
  • Junior looks Done, and it does matter – Mike Dunleavy has been nothing short of awful since the first few games after his return.  His shot has abandoned him, he is completely out of sync with his teammates, and he is glacially slow.  In fact, PETA has filed a protest against the Pacers for making him guard J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony last night.  I normally find PETA overwrought, but that was alarmingly reminiscent of clubbing baby seals.
  • If T.J. sees Slick Leonard holding a hockey stick, he should probably go the other way – Pacer color commentator and icon, Bobby “Slick” Leonard is not a fan of T.J. Ford.   Tuesday night, Slick expressed his disgust over T.J.’s coasting and joking around with Laker players during the fourth quarter of that debacle.  In the two games since then, he’s been quick to note every time T.J. makes a mistake, particularly highlighting Ford’s somewhat lackadaisical defense.  T.J. might want to touch base with former Pacer Bob Netolicky to understand what Slick’s wrath might entail.

Radio Killed the Video Star

Back in January, I started watching the Pacer broadcasts with the sound turned down, opting instead to listen to the radio broadcast featuring Mark Boyle and Slick Leonard.  While I like the TV announcers, Chris Denari and Quinn Buckner, and love the work that Clark Kellogg brings, I must say that this was the right decision.  You simply cannot convince me that there is a better radio team than Mark & Slick.

Boyle is without peer on play-by-play, clear, concise, professional.  Plus, his years of working solo have given him a fantastic sense of timing, allowing him to interject his quick wit into the game.

Slick is perfect for a local color commentator – experienced, enthusiastic, and tons of basketball knowledge, and the perfect touch on allowing his love for Indiana and the Pacers to bleed into his work without deluging it as many do.

I am not the least bit ashamed to admit that I will amost certainly cry the day this team is no longer doing Pacer games.

I’ve taken to tweeting (@toothpicksray) some of the more interesting comments, reactions, and anecdotes as they occur, but I think I want to try to bring some of their wisdom to 8p9s, if I can.  Please bear with me, as these will be paraphrases, not exact transcripts.  As a taste, here was the most striking one from last nights game:

Mark – “Dahntay (Jones) is a good player, but after watching him each and every game this season, I am bewildered as to how he got the reputation as a good defensive player.”

Slick – “Yup.”

The conversation continues, commenting that he’s clearly not even the best defensive player on this team.  That distinction, they said (and I agree), belongs to Brandon Rush.  After that was agreed, Mark ventures:

Mark – “Even Danny…Danny Granger…when he puts his mind to it, can shut down…is a better defender.”

Slick – “Well, when you can take the ‘when he puts his mind to it’ part out, we’ll talk.”

Mark – “Well…yeah.”

(In all honesty, I may have Mark and Slick’s roles reversed in the Danny part, but the riff is accurate.)

Pacers @ Nuggets
114 Score 122
1 Largest Lead 20
105.6 Offensive Efficiency 113.0
49.4% eFG% 51.1%
43.9% (36-82) FG% 47.7% (42-88)
40.9% (9/22) 3PT% 24.0% (6/25)
82.5% (33/40) FT% 84.2% (32/38)
42 (8) Rebounds (Off.) 46 (8)
17 (15) Turnovers (Points Led To) 15 (15)
44 Points in the Paint 42
22 Fast Break Points 12
20 Assists 26

Don't_Give_Up_the_Sheep_Censorship

Last night, the Pacers played Ralph to Denver’s Sam, trying to sneak out a win only to have Denver wake from their slumber long enough to spank us.  Well, it looks like Phoenix is clocking in for tonight’s game.

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Game #62 Preview – Gonna Lose

by Tim Donahue on March 5, 2010 at 1:18 pm

Indiana Pacers @ Denver Nuggets
Friday, March 5th
9:00 pm EST
Pepsi Center
Denver, Colorado

DenverRockets1

I probably should explain a couple things.

First, the logo.  The team that you now know as the Denver Nuggets came into this world as the Denver Rockets of the ABA.  (Well, actually, they began life in Kansas City, then moved to Denver when they couldn’t get an arena, where they were originally called the Denver Larks.) Along with the Pacers, they were one of the premier franchises of that star-crossed (and still much-beloved) league, becoming one of the four teams absorbed into the NBA.  Their owner, Bill Ringsby,  (re)named the franchise to Rockets, and changed the color scheme to Orange and Black so as to match the logo and color scheme of his trucking lines – Ringsby System.

When the leagues merged in 1976, Denver was forced to change their name.  The NBA already had a Rockets, and they used the paper thin reasoning that Houston was “here first,” and that the city actually had a connection to the space program to demand that change.  Piffle.  I, personally, would have told the NBA, “We like our name, thank you very much, and that sounds like a ‘Y.P.,’ not an ‘M.P.’  But, alas, I wasn’t, so now we’re stuck with the Denver Nuggets and the Houston They’re-the-Ones-That-Should-Have-Been-Made-To-Change-Their-Names.

So, why do I mention this?  Because it’s quite possibly the only even vaguely interesting thing about this game.  Which brings me to the second thing that probably merits at least some explanation:  the Title.

Well, it’s pretty straight-forward.  The Pacers are gonna lose.  In fact, all the signs basically say, “The Pacers gonna lose baaaaaaad.”   Denver is pretty much everything that the Pacers are not:  big, strong, fast, athletic, balanced, and talented.   Indy’s best hope is that Denver is in a carnivore coma after devouring a much more respectable Oklahoma City team the other night in the Pepsi Center.  The Nugs led the up-and-coming Thunder by as many as 41 points.  If they put that kind of performance on this staggering and toothless Indiana team, the Pacers might actually just blink out of existence.

Look, I want the Pacers to win.  I want to be positive, and I really do feel kind of bad about being so dismissive of my team.  However, no matter how I look at it, I can only come to one conclusion.

Gonna Lose.

Tracking the Spitball

At the end of January, I did a piece that I entitled “Spitballing – Where the Pacers Will Finish.”  In it, I projected that the Pacers would win 11 of their final 35 games to finish 27-55.   The Pacers have played 14 games since that point, and you’ll be happy to know that they are exactly where I projected them to be at this point.  (Actually, you probably don’t care, but I’m going to pretend you’re thrilled, cuz…that’s pretty much all I got these days.)

ProjvAct

The yellow line shows the actual progress of their winning percentage, while the blue is my projection.  As you can see, I’ve missed a couple wins, but they were offset by losses.  At this point, I might consider the 27 wins (requiring a 7-14 record) to be a tad optimistic.

Behind Enemy Lines

Wanna know more about the Denver Rock..errrr…Nuggets?  Go check out our THN friends at Roundball Mining Company.

Pacers@ Nuggets: By the Numbers

Pacers @ Rockets
20-41 (14th) Overall Record (Conf Rank) 40-21 (3rd)
7-25 (Road) Home / Road Records 26-31 (Home)
.838 Game SoSHR .219
2-8 Record Last 10 Games 6-4
Lost 2 Current Streak Won 1
2-3 Last 5 Head-to-Head 3-2
-5.13 (28th) Avg Scoring Margin +4.84 (5th)
101.6 (28th) Offensive Rating 111.9 (2nd)
43.8% (28th) FG% 47.0% (7th)
48.2% (25th) eFG% 51.2% (7th)
106.8 (14th) Defensive Rating 106.9 (15th)
45.3% (10th) Opponent's FG% 45.8% (15th)
49.0% (10th) Opponent's eFG% 49.5% (13th)
97.6 (2nd) Pace 95.2 (5th)

death-by-falling-fail

No matter how much it currently feels like this is true, this can’t actually happen – I think.

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Jim O’Brien: “I’m not counting on [Tyler Hansbrough] to be back”

by Jared Wade on February 28, 2010 at 2:04 pm

The later and later it has gotten, the more and more I have been expecting the team to officially shut down Tyler Hansbrough for the rest of the year. Well, that still hasn’t happened, but Mike Wells is today reporting that Tyler’s coach doesn’t expect him back.

“I don’t think there’s been an official announcement, but it would not surprise me not to have him the rest of the year,” O’Brien said. “I’m not counting on him to be back.

“He’s dealing with a tough situation. It’s getting deep into the season. He’s unable to practice and condition. He would have to get himself in condition again if he got better within the next three weeks. That’s a tough situation.”

Tyler appeared in four games in mid-January after sitting out for two weeks with an inner ear infection but was by his own admission “dizzy” the entire time and never played more than 13 minutes. The final game in that stretch was on January 16 and he played just 4 minutes.

He hasn’t suited up since.

Tomorrow will be March and he for all intents and purposes hasn’t played since just after Christmas. And given the uncertainty surrounding an affliction that has turned from an inner ear infection to vertigo-like symptoms that prevent him from even flying in an airplane to “Jeez, he hasn’t played basketball in two months” … this is now beyond simply unfortunate and “a wasted rookie season” — it is officially troubling.

And I’m not in the locker room and haven’t ever spoken to Tyler, but from everything I’ve read from Wells and elsewhere, it sounds like the uncertainty isn’t just among the fan base. It doesn’t sound like anyone — Tyler, O’Brien, Larry Bird, doctors — really knows what is going on here.

As O’Brien says, Tyler’s rookie year is probably over. There’s very little point in an out-of-shape Hansbrough trying to race back for the final 10 games of a pointless Pacers season. The last thing you would want is for him to catch a Kurt Rambis-type clothesline going up for a lay up or smack his head on the floor diving for a loose ball — as he’s been known to do. Let’s just keep the docs on the case, figure out what’s going on and hope he can — literally — get his head right over the Summer.

Hopefully, that’s all it takes.

But in “officially troubling” news … Tim earlier brought up the Wikipedia entry for former Cincinnati Red and Boston Red Sox Nick Esasky.

Though he twice hit more than 20 home runs in a season with the Reds, his best statistical year came in 1989 as a member of the Boston Red Sox to whom he was traded for switch-hitting first baseman/outfielder Todd Benzinger. During that season, he hit .277 with 30 home runs and 108 runs batted in. That offseason, as a free agent, Esasky signed a three-year, $5.6 million contract with the Atlanta Braves, but was forced to retire after playing just nine games due to developing vertigo stemming from an ear infection. His salary was paid for by insurance.

Yup.

This is officially troubling.

vertigo hitchcock

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Game #59 Recap – That Was Fun

by Tim Donahue on February 28, 2010 at 11:20 am

We at 8p9s have made it a point to try to make “new age” NBA Advanced Statistics a part of the normal conversation.  Some might say that we – or, more accurately, I – might tend to get a little bit in the weeds.  That may be so, but we will continue to believe we’re on the side of the angels, there.  However, we’re not going to do numbers today.  Without wavering in our commitment to Advanced Stats, I’m just going to talk about the experience of the game last night

  • The Crowd – Though it’s true that there were plenty of Bulls fans there, it was still heartening to see the Fieldhouse pretty much full.  It was also nice to see a connection between the crowd and the players.   Bulls fans, though full-throated early, were pretty easily shouted down by the Pacer partisans.  The atmosphere was as energetic as I’ve felt this year.
  • The Movement – Backcuts, passing, alley-oops.  Last night was one of the few times that this team didn’t look like they’d met each other for the first time upon arriving at the arena.  Yes, there were plenty of turnovers, but few of them were of the mindless sort we’re so used to (and sick of) seeing.
  • The Players – Pretty much everybody that played contributed last night.  (Dunleavy only made one four-minute appearance, then did not return, but I’ll not borrow that trouble right now.)  Watson was aggressive early and often.  Hibbert was a presence in the paint and in the high post.  Dahntay, T.J., and Luther all were active and played with a purpose.  Murphy hit shots, Brandon stayed active.
  • The Team – The Pacers have been hard to get a handle on this year.  I don’t have access to the locker room, or anyone’s innermost thoughts (perhaps not even my own), so I have no clue as to the mental state of this unit.  However, last night, they were a team.  Roy and Troy were cheering for each other.  They were talking and supportive and excited.  I think they probably tend to get too high after success and too low after failures, but last night was just right.   It’s good to see these guys still be able to pull for each other this late in a brutal season.
  • The Man – Danny has quietly begun to find his game.  Post All Star break, he’s averaging 26.5 points and 6.8 rebounds a night.  More importantly, his eFG% is .561, a full 8 points above his pre-break average (I had to give a little taste, but just a little one.)  I missed the Houston game, so I don’t know if he’s put a full game together yet or not, but this is the Danny this team needs.
  • The Company – I got to watch the game with my brother last night, which is always an under-appreciated pleasure.  It’s both refreshing and comforting to fall into the old patterns while watching a game.  Plus, it’s great to draw on his decades and decades (and decades and decades) of experience playing and watching basketball.  At halftime, I had a great chat with BillS and DukeDynamite of Pacers Digest fame.  BillS thought that he saw some impact from the premiere of Winning Time. Several of the players were in attendance at Friday night’s showing, and Bill thought he saw the Pacers being more physical when the Bulls penetrated the paint.  God knows it couldn’t hurt.
  • The Future – Ehhh…this will come uninvited soon enough.  The Pacers face four winning teams this week on a tough Western swing.  The core issues are still there, and there is a whole lotta work to be done before last night’s performance will be the norm.  This is like a warm day in the dead of winter.  You take it for what it is, and squeeze as much as you can out of it.  You know it won’t last.

54

Feel the sunshine while you can.  It is all too rare an occurrence these days.

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Anticipating the Hurt

by Tom Kester on February 26, 2010 at 12:15 pm

I realized something after watching the Pacers lose to … I don’t know … who was it?

The last one.

Wait a sec.

The Bucks. Yeah, that one. They’re all starting to merge in my memory.

At the same time I was watching the Bucks beat us again, I was occasionally clicking over to watch Indiana University host Wisconsin. The last time I clicked, the score was 43-22 Badgers at around the 17 minute mark of the 2nd half.

And about that time I realized my life is pretty good. Really. Not kidding.

I have a job. The wife loves me. My kids are in college or already graduated. Roof doesn’t leak. Car starts. (I have a roof!) I like the folks I work with … everything’s pretty good.

Yep.

Pretty good. Almost perfect.

In fact, all I’d have to do to be as close to perfect happiness as my neuroses allow…is to quit being a fan of Indiana basketball. That’s all. One simple tweak.

And why not? There’s no percentage in sticking to my guns here.

I can barely stand to watch anymore. I won’t even try to recite a litany of all the classic fail strategies the Pacers have employed this season. And last season. And … yeah. The one before that. You know all the scenarios already. All the three to four game themes of futility. The inevitable roster rearrangement to address the perceived problem, which proceeds to morph into a totally different calamity.

Hey. We have a line-up for that. You know … unless the guys are broke. Eh, we’ll put somebody out there. We’re rebuilding.

It’s even affected my enjoyment of the game in general. I never tune to the west coast games anymore after the Pacers lose. I might see a team playing good ball. And I don’t think I could take that.

I used to enjoy listening to Denari and Buckner on the Pacers broadcasts. Now Quinn just pisses me off, and Denari seems like nothing but a shill. The Pacers web site? Used to enjoy it. Now, that headline writer is starting to irk me. “Pacers’ comeback falls short.” Dude, you’re wearing out the font on that one. (What happened to them? They seemed perfectly adequate when we were competitive. Sorry, guys. Maybe it’s me.) I go to my nice full fridge at half-time, and the snacks have no appeal. I open a carefully selected microbrew, and it sits on the table for ten minutes before I even think to take a drink. What enjoyment could there be in it? I go to work with my amiable coworkers, to do a job I’m good at, and which I enjoy … and they pay me … and if it’s a day after a Pacers game, I’m in a bad mood. It’s getting to the point where the bad mood begins the afternoon before the game. Anticipating the hurt.

And it’s pathetic, because here I am whining about my depression…when my life is great. Those kids in China … (what?) …  You know … those kids in China. That were starving? So you should eat your peas? (Wrong generation?) Those kids. Anyway, you know they’d be overjoyed to have my problems. Now that they’re grown up, and suffering through whatever tragedy we can imagine someone having who lives in a far-off land where life is hard … they’d love to have my problems, right?

Because I don’t really have any. Life is good. Life is darned good. I am fortunate. Except for the state of Indiana basketball.

I guess it’s all about perspective. Think of the lessons of the suffering of Job, rather than the mysteries of the machinations of J’OB. Or maybe it’s cosmic law. No one gets to be 100 percent happy. Read sub-paragraph B of Clause 112 to the 14th Law of Thermodynamics. “If things are otherwise good, your ball team must suck.”

The flip side would be the classic sports stereotype. When times are hard, your team wins the big game and makes everything seem OK for a while.

That sounds about right. It all balances out. Those now grown-up suffering kids in China? They probably follow Chinese pro teams that could beat the Pacers.

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Bird’s Boss: “Larry Bird Has Everyone’s Confidence Here”

by Jared Wade on February 25, 2010 at 3:42 pm

When an NBA team is as bad as this year’s Pacers are, everything comes into question. The players. The coach. The GM. So it’s no surprise that a lot of fans, both of the Pacers and just the NBA in general, have been wondering if Larry Bird might be — or even should be — on his way out.

According to Larry’s boss, Pacers Sports and Entertainment President Jim Morris, Mr. Legend isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Reports the Indianapolis Business Journal (via Pacers Digest):

Pacers Sports and Entertainment President Jim Morris gave Bird, Pacers president of basketball operations, a hearty vote of confidence yesterday.

Bird’s contract expires in 2011, and some have speculated that team owner Herb Simon is becoming impatient with Bird. Morris said that’s not the case.

“Larry Bird has everyone’s confidence here,” Morris told IBJ. “He’s working as hard as humanly possible. And we know he will do what it takes to get us a championship caliber team.”

Morris said he and Simon realize the strategy to re-build the Pacers is a multi-year plan. Much of that appears to revolve around clearing player salary cap space to bring in key free agents following the 2010-11 season.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say I have total confidence in Larry’s ability to turn this thing around, but I certainly don’t think he should be fired before given a legitimate opportunity to succeed. Regardless of how the team is doing right now, and regardless of what errors in judgment may have been made, the owners can’t tell a guy “we’re with you on a three-year turnaround plan” and then go and fire the guy 18 months later.

The time line for righting the ship was set for Summer 2011. Everyone was on board with this. From a salary cap perspective, it was the only real option after the decisions were made to get rid of the troublemakers even if that meant bringing in bad contracts. I’m sure Larry was among those committing to that reality and realizing that it might mean an extended rebuild, but it was an organizational decision, not just a choice made by one man.

The plan was to be back in better shape to contend in the Summer of 2011. Until then, and despite any fun we might like to have at the guy’s expense, Larry deserves to be the captain of this rickety ship.

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