He said they did not sign Bynum to prevent Miami from signing him but I'm not sure I believe him now. I could see him lying to us.
They don't NOW but when they signed Bynum, a lot of people thought it was to keep Miami from signing him. Bird angrily denied that was the reason. Considering them never ended up using Bynum much makes me wonder if he was telling the truth.
It appears that way as it seemed little was expected of him. Even though we got little out of him, I am glad the Pacers did not let another team get the chance at talent for basically nothing.
I was born in Indiana and have been a fan of the team since elementary. Being a season ticket holder for the Blazers makes choosing which team to root for impossible. When they play, I am just happy one of my teams won.
Gotcha. I was a big Pacers fan 1993-95. Had a Reggie Miller poster on my wall even. Gave me a team to root for while the Blazers were sucking.
Those were some great years for me as a fan. Growing up we did not have access to every game like we do now, so local coverage of the team was what we had. Not complaining since that was all that my grandparents had as well, so it was easier to talk with them. My grandfather got a huge kick out of me spending my Christmas money on tickets for us since I was not old enough to drive. I know the Dale Davis trade is a sore spot for many Blazer fans, but for alot of people in Indiana it was one too. I am too young to appreciate the ABA success and only knew of awful play until DD was drafted. We had nice players on the team but were horrible on D. He did not back down from anyone and is still my favorite Pacer.
Blazer fans really overreacted to how bad the Dale Davis trade was. He was a good center here. I'm not sure the Pacers would've been that much worse with Davis in place of Jermaine. Those Pacer teams were stacked. Jermaine was kind of a ball hog, he shot 43% FG. Don't get me wrong, he was productive, but Ron Artest was a defensive beast and the best player on those teams. Reggie was still an elite shooter. Trading Grant for Kemp, signing Rod Strickland, trading Steve Smith to overpay Derek Anderson were all far worse moves. And that was before it got REALLY bad in the John Nash era.
I don't buy your idea, it doesn't logically make any sense. Bird is an arrogant prick not to mention a deadbeat parent but that isn't applicable to this situation. The reason Bird was concerned with Bynum going to Miami is on a contender he thought Bynum could be a force. So he thought if the Pacers could get that force, even for some backup minutes, the Pacers would be much better. Turns out Bynum is a big pile of crap at this point. So Bird was wrong, and if he had know then what he knows now he would've happily let Miami sign Bynum.
