Chron: Bird says Pacers made better offer for McGrady I'm not counting our McGrady's before he touches down. Damn, I'm gonna be pissed if the Magic screw us over. I'm just hoping that they're working on a deal to trade SF, not working a deal to deal Tmac elsewhere. Bird says Pacers made better offer for McGrady By JON KRAWCZYSKI Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS -- Larry Bird believes the Indiana Pacers made a better offer for Tracy McGrady than the package of players the Houston Rockets have proposed sending to the Orlando Magic. "My personal opinion is they might have got a better deal from us," Bird said today when asked about the reported deal that would send McGrady to the Rockets for a package including Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley. "Take nothing away from the guys that have been traded. I like our guys. I know our guys are talented and hard workers, but when you go after Tracy McGrady, you have to give up something, and the price was just too high for us." The Rockets were said to be the leading candidate to acquire McGrady from Orlando, with officials from other teams saying Houston was offering a package including Francis, Mobley, Kelvin Cato and/or Bostjan Nachbar for McGrady, Juwan Howard, Andrew DeClercq and Tyronn Lue. Because of league salary cap rules relating to Francis' salary, such a deal could not be finalized until mid-July. Both Bird and team CEO Donnie Walsh spoke with Magic general manager John Weisbrod late last week about McGrady, but did not hear back from him after their initial talks. "No question, when you have a player like Tracy McGrady out there, you try to pursue it and see what it was going to take to try to get involved in it," Bird said. "Obviously they didn't like the players we put out there and really, we didn't get down to details. We just asked them what they would like and they threw some names out there and the price was really too high for us." Reports have swirled for more than a day now that the Rockets and Magic are putting the finishing touches on their deal, but the Magic said they did not expect to make an announcement Tuesday night. While Bird would not say which players the Magic asked for, he did say the Pacers have received a number of inquiries regarding forwards Al Harrington and Ron Artest. Harrington, one of the top sixth men in the league last year, told Bird at their season-ending meeting that he would like to be traded if he wasn't going to start for the Pacers next season. "There's a lot of interest in Al," Bird said. "We're not really shopping Al. I wish Al was happy here and everybody else was happy, but sometimes a change of scenery will do both teams some good." Artest, the defensive player of the year, didn't help his case when he was fined for skipping his season-ending meeting with Bird. The Pacers were also mentioned in rumors surrounding the Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal, but Bird wasn't optimistic that O'Neal or McGrady would land in Indiana. When asked if they were out of the running for an available "superstar," Bird said, "At this point with Shaq and Tracy, yeah. We hear that Tracy's probably going to Houston, but you never know, something might happen. If he's out there, we're going to go after him." Whether the Pacers get back in the race for McGrady or not, Bird made it clear that they will continue to be a player in the trade market, partly because of their considerable youth and depth. "We have a lot of guys with a lot of talent," Bird said. "We can put packages together to go after these guys."
Agreed! Looks like Bird is pretty bitter about this situation. Hopefully McGrady will be a Rocket tomorrow!
Duh. Of course Larry Bird would say that. I bet Joe Dumars would say the same if he had a deal out there. I bet Isiah Thomas would say the same if he had a deal out there. You get the idea.
The Rockets were said to be the leading candidate to acquire McGrady from Orlando, with officials from other teams saying Houston was offering a package including Francis, Mobley, Kelvin Cato and/or Bostjan Nachbar for McGrady, Juwan Howard, Andrew DeClercq and Tyronn Lue. Because of league salary cap rules relating to Francis' salary, such a deal could not be finalized until mid-July Hope Boki isn't in part of the DEAL
Hey guys ... HOW DO YOU CHANGE UR USERNAME?? or are you stuck with the one you register with?? thanks
I think I get what you're saying. So basically all former NBA players that became GMs are whiny biatches.
Pacers took Artest off the offer, and they still think it is a better offer than ours? Bird is so full of himself.
I'll change it for you ~ what would you like it to be? ______________________ Is it just me or is Larry Bird becoming incredibly annoying?
That's sales talk for you. "I mean," says Bird, shaking his head, "we offered Croshere and Pollard and our #29 pick for McGrady. How can you pass that up?" (not a real quote)
"At least our offer has white players." Bird explained. "You know how those other guys are." *Not a real quote.
McGrady would get to the finals quicker if he was traded to Indiana. They have a better, deeper team than the Rox. Plus, they are in a weaker conference,
Shaq, T-Mac Out of Reach, The Pacers are out of the superstar business for the time being, but that doesn’t mean they have become inactive in the NBA offseason marketplace. Team President Larry Bird said Tuesday there are players he’d like to move up to acquire in Thursday night’s NBA Draft. The Pacers have the last pick in the first round, No. 29 overall “If you have an opportunity to move up and get a player that you’re really after I think you’ve go to do that,” he said. “There’s a couple of guys out there this year I’d love to move up and have the opportunity to select ’em. … If I can’t get up there and get the guy I want, we’ll just take our 29th pick and select a guy and maybe do something later.” Though Bird didn’t identify the players he’s after, he acknowledged Oregon guard Luke Jackson as a player he admires. A 6-7, 215-pound guard-forward with strong perimeter skills, Jackson has been favorably compared to Brent Barry and Mike Miller. “I like Luke Jackson, yeah,” Bird said. “He’s a good player. If you like Chris Mullin, you like Luke Jackson.” Though the Pacers had been mentioned as a possible destination for either Tracy McGrady or Shaquille O’Neal, that no longer appears to be a possibility. McGrady is close to being traded to Houston. The price for O’Neal, which reportedly begins with Jermaine O’Neal, is prohibitive. “No question, when you’ve got a player like Tracy McGrady out there you try to pursue it, see what it’s going to take to try to get involved,” Bird said. “We really didn’t get down to detail. We just asked them what they would like and really didn’t throw any names out there. The price was really too high for us.” ............More on the site
Blatz, good find. But I wonder if that article was written before the Rockets/magic snag that happened later that Tuesday? Once the snag appeared you have to believe that Bird saw the wound and jumped right in.