
No one will ever know, but now we have learned that Bird will take his poker face on the road during the upcoming 2014-15 season.
Bird, who before the start of free agency revealed this plan to travel more, had expected to attend more road games as a way to keep Lance Stephenson in line. Besides, even Stephenson spoke of the calm he found while standing in the ‘Bird Cave’ (or should it be ‘Bird Cage?’) while at the Fieldhouse.
However, even though Stephenson has moved on to Charlotte – does Michael Jordan have a cave? – that does not change Bird’s plan to be more of a presence on the road.
“Yeah, I’ll be more now whether he’s there or not,” Bird said. “I don’t do three in the morning West Coast trips for two weeks anymore but I’m going to be at some games.”
This truly should not come as a surprise. The man likes being involved. He sits in during almost every home practice and morning shootaround. He often shares one-on-one conversations with coach Frank Vogel after these sessions away from ear shot of reporters. Even during Bird’s sabbatical season in 2012-13, he said he watched almost every Pacers game on television with a notepad in hand. Now, after a full season into his return as president of basketball operations, clearly Bird must be feeling up for the rigors of the road – good news considering he cited his bad back as one of the causes for the 2012 departure. He also feels the need to be around more. For one big reason…
“I like the games, I like to go to them,” he said. “I don’t like watching on TV. You get a better sense of how your team’s doing, the mental aspect of it if you’re there. So yeah, I’ll be on the road more this year.”
If we’re lucky, there may be more shots of this next season.
Also considering that Bird played 897 games as a professional and spent another 214 on the sidelines as a coach, it feels natural to see him around the action and watching from his seat in the stands.
Key words: from the stands, and not the sideline.
Just imagine the uproar if the Pacers drop three games then take a trip to Chicago for a pivotal divisional matchup – and cameras catch Bird walking off the team bus at the United Center. The whispers will start, the anonymous sources will talk and the easy theory will be that Bird will pull a Riley and tak
e over as coach.
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