ducks
06-19-2006, 08:20 AM
Bird might be ready to flip O’Neal
By Mark Murphy/ NBA notes
Sunday, June 18, 2006 - Updated: 08:57 AM EST
There are times when something as flimsy as a trade rumor - albeit a juicy trade rumor - can force a team or a player to look inward.
Not surprisingly, the hottest talk to come out of the NBA’s pre-draft camp in Orlando, Fla., has the basketball community in Indianapolis flustered.
Could Larry Bird, with his eyes on Gonzaga forward Adam Morrison, really be willing to trade Jermaine O’Neal to Toronto for some kind of package that includes the No. 1 pick in the June 28 NBA draft?
On the surface it sounds like a long shot - even an act of desperation.
But on a team where there was said to be a rift between Bird and O’Neal, the very mention of a trade possibility may be having a binding influence.
Bird, who has also been tough on coach Rick Carlisle in the wake of the team’s fragmented season, was apparently able to put O’Neal’s fears to rest last week.
"We’re fine now," O’Neal told the Indianapolis Star, essentially confirming that life may not have been so rosy with his boss at another point. "I know Larry has full confidence in me as a player, and I have full confidence in him as a president. We’re not that far away. We’re only one or two pieces away from being a contender."
Or, depending on the rumor’s validity, of becoming an expensive re-structuring plan.
But O’Neal, based on word from above, doesn’t sound worried.
"It doesn’t bother me at all," he said. "The bottom line is, when you don’t win and you struggle, your name is going to come up. That’s just the way it is. The whole Toronto thing has no truth behind it whatsoever."
He’ll certainly find out soon enough.
http://celtics.bostonherald.com/otherNBA/view.bg?articleid=144216
By Mark Murphy/ NBA notes
Sunday, June 18, 2006 - Updated: 08:57 AM EST
There are times when something as flimsy as a trade rumor - albeit a juicy trade rumor - can force a team or a player to look inward.
Not surprisingly, the hottest talk to come out of the NBA’s pre-draft camp in Orlando, Fla., has the basketball community in Indianapolis flustered.
Could Larry Bird, with his eyes on Gonzaga forward Adam Morrison, really be willing to trade Jermaine O’Neal to Toronto for some kind of package that includes the No. 1 pick in the June 28 NBA draft?
On the surface it sounds like a long shot - even an act of desperation.
But on a team where there was said to be a rift between Bird and O’Neal, the very mention of a trade possibility may be having a binding influence.
Bird, who has also been tough on coach Rick Carlisle in the wake of the team’s fragmented season, was apparently able to put O’Neal’s fears to rest last week.
"We’re fine now," O’Neal told the Indianapolis Star, essentially confirming that life may not have been so rosy with his boss at another point. "I know Larry has full confidence in me as a player, and I have full confidence in him as a president. We’re not that far away. We’re only one or two pieces away from being a contender."
Or, depending on the rumor’s validity, of becoming an expensive re-structuring plan.
But O’Neal, based on word from above, doesn’t sound worried.
"It doesn’t bother me at all," he said. "The bottom line is, when you don’t win and you struggle, your name is going to come up. That’s just the way it is. The whole Toronto thing has no truth behind it whatsoever."
He’ll certainly find out soon enough.
http://celtics.bostonherald.com/otherNBA/view.bg?articleid=144216