Larry Bird is known for many things — great passing, incredible shooting, championships, competitive fury, and the mellifluous-sounding nickname, “hick from French Lick” — but not one of them is being “nice.” The Boston Celtics Hall of Famer and current Indiana Pacers executive recently reinforced his reputation as a mean man in the tact he took with traded point guard George Hill.
Now with the Utah Jazz, Hill says he discovered he was sent away in a voice mail from Larry Legend.
“We had to trade you to Utah,” the voice mail said, according to Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports.
This does not do much to make working with Bird seem more appealing. His jarring dismissal of coach Frank Vogel — by any metric an overachiever with a mixed-bag roster — was apparently just the first step in reminding everyone about Bird’s grizzled attitude.
As for the trade itself, Bird got Jeff Teague back in return, who is probably a better penetrator and pick-and-roll man than Hill, but certainly a worse defender and veteran, and an equal threat from beyond the three-point arc. Bird is gambling big on a speedier, offense-first roster after years of slugging through improbable victories with Vogel. We’ll see if it pays off enough to justify his surliness.
(via Vigilant Sports)
