Bird Deserves Share of Blame for This Mess

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">A year ago at this time, Larry Bird called out his best player, Jermaine O'Neal, saying if J.O. wasn't prepared to be a leader, the Indiana Pacers president was prepared to deal him and find a new one.

Then Wednesday, during Bird's now-annual postmortem, he called out the entire roster, making a special point of spotlighting his coach, Rick Carlisle, for failing to demand accountability from this year's maddening group of underachievers.

All of which is fine; there is plenty of culpability to be shared after a miserable NBA season.

Except it begs the question:

Who commits the ultimate Hoosier hoops blasphemy and calls out Larry Legend?

Uh, that would be you, Bob.

Oh.

While I would agree with virtually every word Bird uttered Wednesday -- his players weren't uniformly professional, his coaches lost the team, etc. -- I would add a notable name to the list of those who came up painfully short this season:

Larry Bird.

In the three years he has been running this team alongside CEO Donnie Walsh -- and Walsh's contract ends next season, by the way -- Bird has made one good move.

He fired Isiah Thomas. He hired Rick Carlisle. Period.
Beyond that?

Bird dealt the popular Al Harrington for the wildly inconsistent Stephen Jackson -- mistake.

He threw his support behind Ron Artest, standing beside him on the Sports Illustrated cover -- mistake.

He signed Sarunas Jasikevicius to a three-year deal -- mistake.

In retrospect, the case can be made that the decision to obtain Peja Stojakovic was a mistake; both Corey Maggette and Bonzi Wells have had far better playoff seasons.

Yet, there was Bird on Wednesday, and while he wasn't exactly throwing Carlisle under a bus the way Peyton Manning set up his offensive line, he was certainly backing over his coach and the assistants with a small van.

A Bird sampling:

"There has to be more communication between the coach and the players."
"I believe at times Rick's got to be stricter. He's got to demand more out of these guys as far as being professionals and the way they played together."
"With everything that happened last year, you could say, 'Yeah, he probably did lose the team at times.' "

On Jasikevicius, a Bird signee who got buried at the end of Carlisle's bench: "Me and Rick differ. He likes playing him at the '2,' but I think he's a point guard, and if he gets his minutes and he gets out there and gets his confidence, I think he's a very good player."

If that sounds like Pat Riley setting up Stan Van Gundy to be replaced, perish the thought. Bird has no desire to return to the bench.

If you're Carlisle, though, you have to be wondering what's coming next. In Detroit, he was charged with being too tough on players and got booted even after two 50-victory seasons. Here, he's being charged with being too lenient, especially with his top players like Jackson and O'Neal, despite seasons with 61, 44 and 41 victories.

Bird made it abundantly clear he's going to be far more involved in next season's team, something he admitted he should have done this year. Yes, he said, the rope will be shorter for players and coaches next season.
How about the rope around Bird's neck? Or does he get a lifetime pass as a Hoosier hoops icon? The first two years of the Walsh/Bird pairing has featured Walsh in charge and Bird playing the role of apprentice. Next year, though, figures to be Walsh's last year. At which point, this will be Bird's team and Bird's alone.</div>

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