ESPN.com’s Marc Stein is reporting that Larry Bird and Pacers brass have grown tired of Frank Vogel’s player friendly approach, and could look to someone from the Pacers past to lead the team in the right direction.
According to Stein, Bird and Donnie Walsh could look to bring back Mark Jackson as head coach if they decide to part ways with the embattled Vogel.
Yet there’s no escaping the fact that Vogel was awarded his current extension — which runs through the 2015-16 season — when team president Larry Bird was on a one-year hiatus. The fact Bird openly questioned Vogel’s player-friendly approach during the regular season has only added volume to the belief that Vogel’s seat is warming. That he’s not stern enough for Bird’s liking.
And there’s more.
The whispers have already started in Indy about Bird turning to his old point guard, Mark Jackson, to take over. Jackson and Reggie Miller were the leaders when Bird was the Pacers’ coach … and Bird isn’t the only big fan in the organization of the man Golden State just ousted. Fellow Pacers exec Donnie Walsh is another huge admirer who has long maintained privately that he wouldn’t consider Jackson for the Indy job unless he had coached somewhere else first.
But that’s a box Jackson obviously can check now.
Vogel escaped immediate firing when he somehow guided the Pacers past the Hawks and Wizards before getting ran out the building by the Miami Heat.
Jackson is probably not an upgrade over Vogel when it comes to X’s and O’s, but he’d definitely have no problem motivating and getting respect from this group of Pacers.