Larry Bird Says Jermaine O’Neal Part of Pacers Problem
Today’s Indy Star has an interview with the Pacers’ Larry Bird where he kills Jermaine O’Neal for his lack of leadership skills:
“Just because you make the most money doesn’t mean you’re the leader,” Bird said. “A lot of guys didn’t want to step on toes. Not only here, but other places I’ve been at. They’d say, the guy makes the most money, that means he’s the leader. That’s not the case. The leader comes from the guy doing the right thing, the guy that’s going to be there every day at practice, the guy that plays through pain without complaining. They do the necessary things to prepare themselves.
“I think the situation you have here, you had one guy making a lot of money and everybody just took it as he’s going to be leading us, and in some instances that was true. But I think more now that since it has opened you’ll see a number of guys stepping up.”
Larry and Jim O’Brien are clearly fed up with the antics that have plagued the Pacers for the last few years - the proof being the O’Neal trade and the franchise’s decision to keep Jamaal Tinsley as far away as possible. If these problems have been such an issue, what took so long? LB hardly seems like the kind of guy to give anyone any leeway.
Source: Indy Star
September 30th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Celts Fan says:
I’ve always liked JO (and his running/slipping roundhouse to that poor bastard on that faitful night in the D a few years ago did nothing but help!) but he’s one of those guys that wanted max money and didn’t want the responsibility that came with it. If they pay you that much, then it’s on YOU to make the team better. Don’t complain you don’t have enough help (they’ve had more than ‘Bron has in Cle. and all he did was get them to the Finals MUCH EARLIER than people expected.) The injuries didn’t help. Hopefully, he can stay healthy and get shit back on track in the TDot with less responsiblity on his shoulders next to Bosh.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:51 am
MoxWestCoastRep says:
Exactly. If Bird felt this wayy he should have shipped JO when he got rid of ron ron, Harrington and S-Jack
September 30th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Sam I Am says:
POINT IS….
These fools do want max money and max contracts and the perks of the business, but can’t deliver
tsk tsk tsk
September 30th, 2008 at 11:00 am
yallallreadyknow says:
larry bird needs to except the fact that he has failed as a gm and president. he has done nothing to help that team since going to the front office. NOTHING.
and if you consider drafting danny granger something–then shame on you.
he got two white bums from GS (murphy/dunleavy) and they haven’t done shit on the court in indy.
..and now he’s talking shit about former players. thats a puss move. if he’s talking about JO (which we all know–but birdy never called him out by name) then he should man up and have said that shit when JO was there. not after you ship him away. stop being a punk larry.
talk yo shit when the dude is there to hear it from yo mouth, not read it in the papers when he’s gone. you havent helped your case
September 30th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Michorizo says:
Don’t want to step on anyone’s toes but will deliver a roundhouse kick to the chest anytime.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Michorizo says:
my bad..i had two things on my mind…my comment makes no sense
September 30th, 2008 at 11:13 am
dapro says:
@Yall
Couldn’t have agreed more. Bird and Walsh put this team together and watch them fall apart.
This was a puss move by a legendary ball player but failed exec
September 30th, 2008 at 11:14 am
dapro says:
Why does he get a pass and Isiah was made to be the laughing stock of the league?
If Indiana were as large a market as NYC, LA,CHI then not even his hometown icon status would save him
September 30th, 2008 at 11:20 am
YOUNGFED says:
Bird is just trying to put the Pacers through his version of the Black Diaspora. That might be a lil too deep for alot of yall though.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:25 am
the rocket cat says:
I’m sick of teams throwing players under the bus. I said it for Tinsley and I’ll say it again for O’Neal. These guys are products of their environments. If you take a bunch of young guys and put them in the wrong environment, shit is going to happen. If Indiana has so many players with behavioural problems, is that just shit luck? Was every one of these players a bum before he came to Indiana or did a messed up environment in Indiana cause these players to develop bad tendencies? You have to put the blame on management (and coaching - although I’m inclined to think it was the Isiah Thomas years in Indiana that laid the shitty foundations for the eventual collapse).
September 30th, 2008 at 11:42 am
BxBaller says:
How come Larry Legend isn’t getting any flack for NOT bringing in high character guys. If he knew the team didn’t have a leader, then it was up to him to go out and get one.
September 30th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Tyrone says:
This shit ain’t right y’all. Larry legend was a balla for shure, but it O’Neal got mad hoops skillz as well. He got mad buckets and nasty blocks y’all. Cat’s also a good dime disher.
True thugz NEVER lie.
Tyrone
September 30th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
chris says:
what a shock - indy couldn’t win with a team of JO, S Jack, harrington, artest and tinsley cos of ‘personality/leadership/character issues’…..S jack, harrington and artest are long gone (step 1), and things got worse, so the choice now (step 2) is to get rid of walsh/bird or JO/tinsley ..i think JO’s chance of success in TO are better than tinsley’s chances anywhere, but still no more than 50:50.
September 30th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Ashlov says:
All bad GM’ing aside, I’m pretty sure that Larry Bird is still the best white player that gets paid by the Pacers. As for calling out JO, I’m not sure why that was necessary. Congrats on motivating JO to bend over your frontcourt a few times this year. Have fun, toodles.
September 30th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
marcus the great says:
lol is that a leather du-rag??
September 30th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
jimmhumm says:
JO is a leader to the Pacers… in all time games missed!
September 30th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Big V says:
Bird is a biatch. JO should snuff him too.
September 30th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Brown says:
Just further motivation for JO to prove the Pacers wrong. He’ll be great in T.O.
September 30th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Pskila says:
LOL…at 15…This wannabe thug persona…is gone to far..I cannot understand how you can claim to be so thugged out and going through so much when you sign a lucrative deal in the upperwards of 100 million dollars. Jermaine O’Neal was injury prone for the last couple of years, no way are they gonna keep you around if it isn’t helping the team. Jamal Tinsley is next..he is one of the biggest guns in the league…lol…The dude looks like he gonna faint in that du-rag…
September 30th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
dukesman2000 says:
JO is injury proned and overrated
September 30th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Damon says:
larry bird is probably the worst gm in the league. he has made mistake after mistake. we had such a great team some years ago. then when problems came he didn’t do anything. he could have gotten alot more for all this talent. the golden state trade was just horrible.
September 30th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Ansonious says:
Regardless of all this nonsense Danny Granger is going to have a monster season and if I was Indiana I would build around him.
September 30th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
johnsacrimoni says:
@ Yall
Averaging 19 ppg is nothing?
September 30th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Pskila says:
Smh..at 23….Anybody in the pros..if they put in the work and have some sort of talent can average 19 points a game…It takes tenacity to be great..and JO just didn’t have it when he was with the Pacers. Hopefully, this change is good…but he still has the same injuries and age….no hate …
September 30th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Homeless J says:
so according to Youngfed, Indiana is Africa, and Larry Bird is an oppressive slave owner who is shipping Jamaal Tinsley and Jermaine O’Neal out of Africa to be enslaved.
makes perfect sense to me. At what point do the remaining Pacers convert to islam, petition to get kufis instituted into team uniform and overthrow the oppressive white devil Larry Legend so the Reverend Al Sharpton can become team GM? I bet that’ll make Travis Diener and Jeff Foster really uncomfortable.
My thoughts on Jermaine O’Neal: His famous sliding Tekken 2 punch will forever immortalize him in my mind, no matter what he does from this point on.