Kevin McHale calls him Birdie and Pacers radio color commentator Bobby Leonard refers to him as Larry Joe.
Shortly we will all refer to him as long gone. Yes, Larry Bird will be riding off into the sunset after the Pacers are eliminated from the NBA Playoffs to begin enjoying life without the aggravation and stress of running a fledgling NBA franchise.
His body language demonstrates both his disdain for the NBA today and his frustrations with a team that at times shows a lack of mental toughness, a quality that Bird always carried in his playing days.
No longer able to accept a league where guaranteed contracts facilitate the firing of coaches, Bird loathes the fact that many players today simply pack it in when there is a large disparity on the score board, and he certainly has no patience for their lack of hustle and their selfishness.
From the time he made the decision to coach the Pacers until his last days at the helm of the franchise, the approach that Bird has demonstrated can only be described as fundamentally sound. As a head coach, he surrounded himself with quality assistants and never failed to give them the credit they deserved.
Through trades and free agency, the Pacers nucleus for the future is intact, and Bird deserves a lot of credit for leaving the franchise in far better shape than it was when he assumed the reins. However, the grind of being an NBA executive has caught up with him and he simply has had enough of a league in which players dictate policy and often go through the motions.
Despite the boyish grin he displays in a current television spot for ticket sales, Bird is unhappy with his job. Regardless, lets thank him for putting a runaway train back on track and for enduring a ton of misery in the process.
Hopefully, he will find that playing golf on the nicest courses in the country and spending quality time with his family will suffice. While it would not surprise me if he reemerges as a NBA owner at some point, his tenure in Indianapolis is about to conclude by his own fruition.
Bird has clearly had enough, and quite honestly who can blame him?
Danny Bridges can be reached at (317) 578-1780 or at Bridgeshd@aol.com.
