Lance 'Bum Already' Stephenson No Longer 'Born Ready' For Pacers

We’ve heard one side of the story so far. Let the courts decide his guilt. If he’s found guilty, then cut him.

The union would never allow any conditions into his contract.

While I would totally support finding a way to cut him, I can’t help thinking of how that does little good for anybody. The predominant viewpoint on this is that he is squandering an opportunity and does not deserve it b/c of his foolish actions. But, by cutting him, all we do is cut him loose to continue abusing women and probably do permanent damage to his future. So, we COULD take a different path, which is to let him stay but use our resources as an organization to give him support on how to better himself and deal with the issues he very clearly has. With that, we help him, help the franchise, and overall do a service to society by taking a young kid under our guidance and trying to evolve into a good person.

Of course, it’s still up to Lance if he even WANTS to become a better person. So, this proposal assumes that he is under pretty close watch. And if he screws up again, he’s gone. Like I said, it’s totally understandable if we choose to cut him for this cuz most people wouldn’t be given another opportunity at a high-paying job after something like this. But, I’m just saying that the organization could really set an example to the league for how to mature the increasingly immature players that come into the league rather than throwing them to the wolves, or simply discarding them.

like i said he’s just mad cuz he ain’t got the starting spot no more…lance has never played off the bench before…NEVER

Witness will take the money and not testify. No witness, no evidence for a conviction.

right when I thought the Pacers were on the right track this happens. I feel sorry for Bird. It seems like even when Bird does all he can to make sure that a guy has good character it back fires. Does all NBa teams have this sort of problem or are the pacers just this unlucky???

I believe that all wording in contracts regarding “firing for cause” is collectively bargained.
I don’t believe teams have the leeway to put conditions in on a selective basis. I am sure
it’s boilerplate.

I apologize for not being able to cite a source for this opinion; but I am confident that teams are not allowed to place special conditions on continued employment. NBA teams and their legal staffs are too smart not to place citizenship clause in their player contracts if they were allowed to do so.

I remember reading a few months ago that this topic might be broached in the current
CBA negotiation sessions.

Is thank the good Lord that the Pacers got their hands on Collison before this happened….

Well it seems like he did not take the news well that a new and better point guard is coming to town. Which is one thing but it seems like he does not have the level headedness to keep it together and he does not have a strong enough support from others to help him out. I think volatile best describes his situation. Not being able to step back from the impact of the disappointment and refocussing yourself to better yourself. Now he ends up brewing for a couple of days until he let it all out on his girl cause of something small and insignificant. You might have all the talent in the world but if you can’t keep it together you’re still stuck like the rest of us. Too bad this is happening on the pacers clock, again. Obviously the guy needs some serious help which is a lot more than the silly NBA program. Whether this happens while he is a pacer or not.

You know, I could imagin some scenarios where the women could have ended up down the stairs on accident.

But, I cannot for the life of me, even imagin a scenario where slamming her head against the bottom step could happen without lance looking like someone I don’t want in a Pacers uniform.

The arrival of Collison and Posey keep all this from seeming like a downhill slide.
Some very good and constructive things are happening with our team.

I know this looks bad right now but the Pacers need to be careful to rush to judgment before everything is figured out from a legal stand point. Remember when Kobe was accused of rape? The details for that were also pretty gruesome but ultimately proved to be untrue. I’m all for getting rid of the “Bad Boys” image the Pacers had/have but I think cutting him now would send the wrong message to the league if Stephenson was ultimately proven to be innocent.

i think the Pacers are already looked around by the league and its players as a team full of goody too-shoes white guys and I think releasing a black player just on an accusation is the wrong move regardless on how serious the allegation is.

This is a tough call for Bird because obviously a lot of the Pacer fan base wants this guy gone immediately but by doing so Bird may hurt his chance to attract free agents in the future. And I know right now things to look grim for Stephenson but if Bird cuts him now and he turns out to be innocent (somehow) and then how does Bird get looked at by around the league? No one will want to play for a team that doesn’t back its players, or at least wait until ALL the facts are straightened out. I know all of this is frustrating but I think we need to sit on this for awhile and see what happens.

but if it turns out that everything being reported is true and Bird still decides to keep him I say lets start a fundraiser on this website to raise money for the Lance Stephenson Buyout.

I would be. But the guy raped a girl and got off my apologizing and paying her off. So for all of you who think we should cut “Born Douchebag”, would you cut Kobe from the Lakers? If not, what’s the difference?

if these allegations turn out to be accurate, he needs to be on the first flight out of Indy. But now is not the time to do anything but wait for things to even out and all the facts to surface. My heart sinks hearing that he followed up pushing her down the stairs with hitting her head, but I’ve seen conflicting reports on that aspect of the story. Also (and not to be an asshole sceptic) I question the accuracy of the statement considering that it was Lance and all of his girlfriend’s friends. He needs to stay out of these situations and this behavior can’t happen again, but I think Bird knows this and made it clear. One thing’s for sure: he’s on thin ice.

people jumped all over those players and they ended up being exonerated. If Lance is guilty, he’s guilty but it’s been less than 48 hours and we really don’t know anything yet.

. . . nothing is ever wrong about the advice of drseussrunner7 to take a deep breath and
see how things play out. I respect that advice very much. But my view, for what it’s worth,
differs in one important respect:

I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the Pacer brass to require that players don’t even put
themselves to be in a position to be accused of abusing either women, children, or
animals. Behaviour that even hints at any of those things simply will not be tolerated
today.

The Pacers are fighting for their corporate lives. Their continued existence in Indy hangs
by a thread. Swift and decisive action, perhaps unfortunately, is required here. No
future self-respecting free agent will be put off by a franchise that requires its players
to be, like Caesar’s wife, “above reproach.”

The good news is we can cut him without paying. Morality clause in every NBA contract states:

“at any time fails, refuses or neglects to conform his personal conduct to standards of good citizenship, good moral character (defined here to mean not engaging in acts of moral turpitude, whether or not such acts would constitute a crime), and good sportsmanship, to keep himself in first-class physical condition, or to obey the team’s training rules.”

On draft night, ESPN reported that the Pacers tried to spend as much as $3 million to buy
a late first round draft pick so that they could assure themselves of landing Lance.

Their overtures were rejected, but they ended up getting him anyway. If they end up
having to spend half that amount to cut him, it’s not that big a deal in the overall picture.

Whatever happened to ‘innocent until proven guilty’? IF he did this… yea he should probably be cut.

But everyone is acting like he’s already been proven guilty. He has not. Chill out about it.

All these guys have found themselves in situations where they weren’t “beyond reproach” and they’ve all proven capable of moving forward and not repeating the behavior. Lance made a horrible mistake but there’s no reason to cut him tonight or even the next week or month. The season starts in late October, no need 2 rush into this.

1) Certain franchises, such as Portland and Indy, do not have the same public relations
leeway as do the big city franchises. Their fans have been burned, and the teams must
be especially careful.

2) “innocent Until Proven Guilty” applies in a court of law. It does not automatically apply
to employment situations. A prospective employer in the workplace might very well say
to a candidate, for instance, “if you even get arrested for DUI, you’re gone.”

3) Lance Stephenson has embarassed the Pacer franchise and has risked the Pacers’
reputation in this incident—almost regardless of what the specific details might turn
out to be.

1. agreed
2. agreed
3. agreed
but bottom line, if the Pacers cut him in two weeks I don’t think that anyone complains about us not doing it sooner. Acting too early could have just as much negative impact considering how talented Lance is.

I certainly agree with your point. There’s nothing wrong with reacting calmly and
methodically here. This is an important juncture in franchise history.

because I was all excited about having another Tyreke Evans on our team.

The only thing I can say is that the acquisition of Darren Collison takes some of the sting
out of it for me.

I don’t want a guy on “my” team who pushes a woman down the stairs and bangs her head against the step. I can’t believe anybody is saying “uh, but maybe he’s still a good guy and it’s just 1,5 Million for him…”. He’s a stupid Kid that should go to jail and you wanna make him a millionare?

This news story obviously upset me as much as any diehard pacers fan but we don’t know a ton of details. We just got a great trade, Granger is playing for team USA, I’m gonna focus on the positive and let justice take care of Lance. Cutting him would be a knee jerk reaction. Lance was by far the best pick at 40 and we’ve been begging the Pacers to take a chance and do something! So they did. Some risks pay off and some backfire.

There’s always more to every story than what we hear (not saying it’s better, it could actually be worse). Maybe he has a history of violence that we’ve only scratched the surface of, maybe she can home at 5, walked up to Lance and told him she was with another guy that night cause the other guy had a bigger c@ck and he flipped out, maybe she tripped down the stairs, he rushed down to help her and lifted her head up to make sure she was ok, but his hands were sweating so much that her head slipped, crashing back into the stairs…

Ok, I’m way off any point I had now, just wanted to say let’s wait a few days. There’s no need for the Pacer’s to rush to any decisions right now. It might be different if it was during the season, but they have the luxury of keeping their mouths shut, reviewing the evidence and finding the best solution. Personally I say bring in Tony Dungy to help mentor the kid!

Still, this looks really, really bad…

Just read Bird’s comments, and I really like how strongly worded his message is. Seems like a good response to me.