Larry Legend makes his mark

Larry Bird, the Pacers new president of basketball operations, has fired head coach Isiah Thomas. Good move by Bird. As has been mentioned before, Thomas was absolutly TERRIBLE in last years playoff loss to the Celtics. He needed to be shown the door no matter how much the players claimed they liked him. I find it amusing that O'Neal is upset that Thomas left. Why? The kid wants to win, Thomas blew that last year. He really resigned with Indiana because of the money not the coach, so that is off the table. He will play and he will be happy to play for a good coach like Rick Carlisle.

Rick Carlisle of course should have been the coach to replace Larry, when Larry retired. Unfortunatly the Pacers thoguht it would be wiser to go with Isiah. Good move, as Isiah led your team to early playoff exits and Carlisle only was coach of the year and made a pretty bad Detriot team into the #2(maybe #1 this year with Darko) team in the east.

Carlisle isn't the players coach that Thomas was, but maybe the Pacers don't need that right now. They are an uprising team, led by a "legitimate" (in this day in age, he is legit) big man. They should've done better and gone further in the playoffs last year, but Isiah decided to coach like this was a 4th grade recreation team, and everyone gets to play. His substitution "pattern" was ridiculous. I imagine players will enjoy Carlisle rotation when he implements it, because It must be easier know when and how much you are going to play each game. Unlike Isiahs 40 minutes tonight, 10 total minutes the next 3 nights.

Of course Larry's firing of Isiah does open a few cans of worms. One being that there was said to be animosity between the two that dates back to their playing days. The other Can? I will say it. Someone will bring it up, might as well be me. Racism. I will deal with the animosity can first. Who cares? Even if it is true, Isiah made this real easy for Larry to do by laying down in the playoffs last year. If he had done a good job and showed that he might be able to take this team to the next level, then this firing might not have happened.

Now the racism angle. I firmly believe this is bull-oney. First, I believe that when it comes to basketball, Larry doesn't see the color of peoples skin. He is too much of a competitor to care. He just wants to win. Add this to the fact that he became good friends with Patrick Ewing (whom, i do not need to remind you is African-America just as Isiah is) while playing for the (one and only) Dream Team in Spain.

Yet people will still say Larry fired the black man to hire his white friend. Is it his fault his white friend was the NBA's Coach of the Year? Is it his fault that the other guy was a terrible coach? It simply is not a matter of race in this case. Anyone who thinks it is, just needs to review tape of last years Pacers/Celtics playoff series to know.

In Summary: Kudos Larry, Kudos.