<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>He sees a difference-maker. That’s why, when many fans were willing to buy Tinsley a one-way ticket out of town, O’Brien approached team president Larry Bird and urged him not to trade his point guard. “I know this, there are a lot of naysayers out there about Jamaal and whether he can be the guy (who) I put the ball in his hands and lead our team and do the type of things I want him to do,” O’Brien said. “I’m going to emphatically say, yes, he is. I said that to him the first time we talked.” After four years in Rick Carlisle’s restrictive, set-play offensive system, Tinsley will operate under a coach who wants to push the tempo, which plays into Tinsley’s favor. “Jamaal has never really been given a chance to lead x the offense,” forward Jermaine O’Neal said. “We ran a system over the last four years that has been very complicated. We didn’t make any of the calls. Rick made all the calls, and it takes away from a player like Jamaal. Jamaal wasn’t happy in that type of system. He made that clear.” Tinsley rarely voiced his frustration about Carlisle. He did it with his body language on the court, remaining on the bench during timeouts and showing up late for shootarounds and practice. “I’ve been a teammate of Jamaal ever since he got here,” center Jeff Foster said. “He’s a good friend. You can tell he was frustrated last year and the year before with Rick. He’s got a fresh new start now. A new coach and a new opportunity to come out and show the fans in Indiana that he’s our point guard and get them back on his side.” Tinsley said his issues with Carlisle isn’t worth discussing, but it didn’t take long for him to reach out to O’Brien. Tinsley trains in Atlanta during the offseason and in previous years had been difficult to reach. Not so this past summer. He called O’Brien the day he was hired. He picked up O’Brien at the airport when the two met in Atlanta. “He wasted little time and said to me, ‘What’s the plan, coach?’.” O’Brien recalled Tuesday. “I looked back at him and said, ‘I’m really not ready to discuss the plan until you and I talk about where you are and what you’re ready to accomplish and I’ll tell you what my expectations are.’ ” Tinsley is a fan of O’Brien because “he holds you responsible.” “He’s going to be up front with you,” Tinsley said. “Some of the things he says you might not like, but at the end of the day, you know he’s got your best interest.”</div></p> Source: IndyStar</p>
