The decision was made on Friday by Larry Bird, and general manager Kevin Pritchard will succeed him.
In order to raise awareness for the NBA’s All-Star weekend returning to Indiana, Larry Bird began the week by speeding down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in an Indianapolis 500.
The NBA great’s post-playing career has been marked by his abrupt resignation as president of basketball operations for the Pacers, which marked the end of his tenure.
General manager Kevin Pritchard will be promoted to replace Bird, who made the call on Friday, an individual with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press. The team has not made an announcement about the move, which Yahoo! Sports first revealed, so the person spoke under condition of anonymity.
Before a crucial summer in which the Pacers must make a decision regarding star forward Paul George, Bird departs the team. After the upcoming season, he will be a free agent, and there is a lot of conjecture that he would rather play for the Los Angeles Lakers. The Pacers will have to choose between trading him and trying to convince him to stay for the long run.
In 2003, he took on the role of team president once more, and together they built one of the league’s best teams, winning 61 games and making it to the Eastern Conference finals in 2003–04. After the ugly incident in Detroit known as “Malice at the Palace,” in which players Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, and Jermaine O’Neal brawled with Pistons fans, that team disintegrated the next season.
The native of French Lick, Indiana, methodically turned the team around and made it a contender once more, turning Lance Stephenson from a troublemaker into a formidable force and assembling a promising core around George and Danny Granger. In 2012, he was recognized as the NBA Executive of the Year and resigned a few months later.
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