<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Jermaine O'Neal's role in the Pacers' offense and the team's defensive problems led to his "emotional" conversation with the coaching staff and team president Larry Bird after Indiana's 114-88 loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday. Coach Rick Carlisle shied from answering questions about the exchange, but O'Neal spent almost 10 minutes addressing the situation after practice Thursday. "When you expect to win and you don't, and get beat the way we got beat, you're going to be a little bit more emotional," O'Neal said. "Maybe our conversation should have waited until (Thursday), until things calmed down a little bit. . . . In order to achieve the goal we want to achieve, you have to be willing to state your opinion. Whether you agree or not, at the end of the day you have to figure it out. At the end of the day we agreed things need to be altered a little bit in our approach and we walked away from it."</div> Source
