Indiana Pacers player personnel director Mel Daniels has left the NBA team after nearly 30 years in the organization.
His departure was confirmed Friday in a brief statement by Larry Bird, the team’s president of basketball operations.
“Mel was a great basketball player who helped make the Pacers a well-known franchise – and we wish him well,” Bird said.
The Indianapolis Star reported late Friday the 65-year-old Daniels was fired over a messy, but undisclosed, in-house controversy that also included Coach Jim O’Brien and General Manager David Morway.
Daniels was a seven-time American Basketball Association all-star and was the defunct league’s first Rookie of the Year in the 1967-68 season.
He was an assistant coach for Indiana State from 1978-82 when Bird honed his basketball skills in both shooting and passing.
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