Two of the NBA’s best players of their or any generation have been complete and total duds in the front office, Isiah Thomas with the Knicks, Larry Bird with the Pacers.

While it’s widely understood that Isiah has no idea what he’s doing in New York as the Knicks have become the laughing stock of the league, Larry Bird  has gotten a pass from many in the state of Indiana for ruining a playoff caliber team.

Let’s examine last year’s offseason for the Pacers. Free agent Peja Stojakovic  is a free-agent and instead of resigning him, Bird opted to save their money and give it to Al Harrington — again. For those of you keeping track at home, Harrington and perpetual headache Stephen Jackson were dealt mid-season along with Sarunus Jasikevicius  to Golden State for Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy and Ike Diogu. Money well spent right? It gets better. The Pacers have a grand total of ZERO picks in tomorrow night’s draft because they gave away this year’s first round pick to Atlanta in the Harrington deal and traded their second round pick on draft night last year in a deal that brought James White to the Circle City, White was released before the start of the ‘06-’07 season.

I was fixing a smoothie in my kitchen when I first heard of the four-team trade that has since fell through between the Lakers, T-Wolves, Celtics and Pacers. A trade that would have, among other things, brought Kevin Garnett to the Lakers, sent Al Jefferson and the fifth overall pick to the T-Wolves, sent Jermaine O’Neal to the Celtics and .. wait for it.. brought Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum to the Pacers. “You’ve got to be kidding!” I said aloud, to no one in particular. But this is the kind of GM Larry Bird has been. He would trade J.O. for a Odom, who is a nice player but hardly a franchise player and Andrew Bynum, who averaged 8 points and 6 rebounds a game in his rookie season. Granted this deal fell through because O’Neal balked at the idea of playing in Boston and Kevin McHale finally regained function of his brain, I would not put it past Bird to move O’Neal. Despite his claims to do so, I do not believe that Bird will be able to get value for O’Neal who has been a perennial all-star the last 5 or so seasons.

It’s time to stop giving Larry Bird a pass because he’s “Larry Legend,” he’s made moves that have undermined the integrity of the franchise (bringing Marquis Daniels, who will be in court this week with teammates and all-around great guy Jamal Tinsley who will face a trial in Sept. in connection to a bar fight, to town). It’s time to show Larry the door.

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