Read Larry Bird’s advice to Magic Johnson about running a basketball team
In 2003, Larry Bird was hired as president of basketball operations for the Indiana Pacers. Outside of a brief stint away from the game for health reasons, Bird has served in that capacity ever since. So when Magic Johnson called after getting the same position with the Lakers a couple of weeks ago, Bird had some advice for his former rival.
“He’s got a lot to learn,” Bird told the LA Times after a phone call with Johnson before the NBA trade deadline. “But he took the challenge and I’m sure he’s ready for it. There’s just so much to learn about it.”
Bird won executive of the year after the 2011-12 season, almost a decade after he was hired, so he knows the job doesn’t always click right away. From the LA Times story:
“You can put a team together, what you think’s gonna be a pretty solid team on paper, and then when they get out there they don’t mesh well,” Bird said. “I’m sort of going through that this year. We thought we had a decent team that we thought could compete for the fourth or fifth seed. We haven’t played as well as I thought we would all year. That’s the growing pains. That’s the frustration about it.”
As far as the notion that Bird may be more likely to strike a deal with Johnson because he’s a longtime friend, Bird referred to another longtime friend, former teammate and current Celtics president of basketball ops Danny Ainge.
“I’ve been here for, I don’t know how many years, 12, 13, and I haven’t made a deal with Danny Ainge yet,” Bird said. “That should tell you something.”
