Thomas front-runner to replace Bird
ESPN.com news services
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Pacers are expected to move
quickly to name successor to Larry Bird, and Isiah Thomas could be named head coach as early as Thursday, a source told ESPN's David Aldridge on Monday night.
|  | | Isiah Thomas has no coaching experience, but he might be taking over the Eastern Conference champs. |
The 116-111 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers Monday night
eliminated the Pacers from the NBA Finals and ended the coaching
career of Bird, who said all along this would be his final season
with Indiana.
Thomas has already made contact with some Pacers players about next season,
but no official deal has been reached yet, Aldridge reported.
Other candidates for the job include Sacramento assistant Byron
Scott and Pacers assistant Rick Carlisle.
Thomas led Indiana University to the 1981 NCAA championship and was a
12-time NBA All-Star and Hall of Fame player with the Detroit
Pistons.
When Thomas stopped playing, he became part owner and general
manager of the Toronto Raptors. Last year, he bought the
Continental Basketball Association for $10 million, but he would
have to sell the league if he were to become a coach in the NBA.
"There's a perceived conflict of interest, and like any other
businessman you will resolve that conflict when it's there,"
Thomas said during the NBA Finals, during which he worked as an analyst
for NBC. "There are millions of conflicts in businesses, and
people sit down at the table and they resolve those conflicts. If
that time came, I will resolve the conflict, whatever that conflict
may be."
Sacramento, which originally gave Indiana until June 1 to talk
with Scott, extended the deadline while the Pacers were in the
playoffs.
"All of us as candidates have said, while the Pacers are in the
heat of a championship run, we all have to respect the position
they're in, whether it be Byron Scott, Rick Carlisle, myself or
whoever the other candidates are," Thomas said last week.
He would not be more specific about the likelihood he would
become the coach.
"I don't care if you ask it a different way, that way or around
the corner, you're still going to get the same answer," he said.
He again was noncommittal Monday night.
Thomas, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, led
the Pistons to NBA titles in 1989 and 1990. A 6-foot-1 guard, he
made the NBA All-Star team in 12 of 13 seasons and in 1996 the NBA
honored him as one of its 50 greatest players ever.
He averaged 19.2 points and 9.3 assists for his career, both
Pistons records, and is fourth in assists and ninth in steals in
the NBA.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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Larry Bird is disappointed by the loss on Monday.
