Larry Bird Considers Leaving Pacers After Next Season...Or Not

Larry Bird indicated, in a Boston Globe profile today, that he doesn't expect to run the Indiana Pacers much longer, and will re-evaluate his situation after setting the team up to play following the NBA lockout.

"It's at a point now in my life where I think it might be time to really reconsider and see how long I want to do this,'' said Bird, now 54. "They asked me to stay another year through the lockout season, the owner did, for a favor. I was leaving, but he asked me to stay, and I will and I'll get the job done.

"I just think the franchise is in a good position right now, and I want to leave it in a good position for the next guy to do some good things. Sometimes you just look at it and say, ‘Hey, I’ve done enough. I’ve got it in the position I want to get it in,’ and you move on. I’ve got another year here and I’m going to try to do the best I can to get this team back to winning.’’

Bird offers the exact reasoning to consider leaving that I thought he would rely on earlier this summer to step away. He has managed the team through painful times and left the franchise in great position moving forward.

So instead of Bird wanting to know if Herb Simon would be willing to spend the team's cap space, the issue given for Bird and Simon taking time determining his return a few weeks ago, it was instead Simon trying to convince Bird to stick around and spend his money.

As always, this is yet another example of why comments to the media from players, coaches and team presidents alike, must always be taken with a grain of salt. They're rarely interested in offering up the whole story, but rather their interest lies in the interview ending.

Wait. That means I can't rely on the quotes from Bird in the story linked above either, right? I'm so confused.