Published: April 18, 2008 09:42 am            

Column: Simon says a change is needed for Pacers

ANDERSON, Ind. — Be honest. If Herb Simon accidentally bumped

his shopping cart

into yours in the nearest Wal-Mart or Target, would you know it was

the co-owner of the Indiana Pacers?

(Note: Some imagination is required here. Simon and his brother,

Melvin, have been successful real estate developers for nearly 50

years, so Wal-Mart might not be a frequent stop).

You get my point, though.

The Simons for lack of a better description have been the anti-Mark

Cuban since purchasing Indianapolis’ professional basketball

franchise in 1983. Monuments to invisibility in an era in which

profiles of the accomplished are only a google search away.

Until now.

Herb, at 73 the younger Simon brother by eight years, apparently has

seen enough. Enough losing. Enough underachieving. Enough

off-the-court troubles by immature players. Enough decline in home

ticket and merchandise sales.

Yet the announcement that Simon finally exited his cave and is going

to preside over the Pacers’ day-to-day operations as chairman and

CEO seems to have touched off one massive shoulder shrug.

Such skepticism is common when your once-fervant fan base

spends three years digesting mediocrity when it remembers how

“blue-and-gold” was much more than three words and a pair of

hyphens.

Since Ron Artest incorporated that scrawny fan in Auburn Hills as a

horizontal punching bag, the majority of Pacers fans over time have

been programmed to anticipate the worst. The glass isn’t merely

half-empty, it’s almost entirely void of water.

What Simon has up his sleeve regarding the Pacers franchise is

unknown at this juncture. Simon himself might not know until he

spends a week or three behind the big desk.

Maybe he can find methods of shipping high-priced veterans

Jermaine O’Neal and Jamaal Tinsley to other franchises in return for

quality rather than bodies to park at the end of the bench.

Nonetheless, it’s a move that had to be made. Saying Simon has an

investment in all of this qualifies as the Manute Bol of

understatements.

Reading between the lines, the co-owner’s decision to use himself

to replace the departed Donnie Walsh hints at not having complete

confidence in Larry Bird, the Pacers’ oft-criticized president of

basketball operations.

With Walsh gone this was supposed to be Bird’s opportunity to

shape and mold the Indiana roster as he saw fit. As a player no one

was more automatic when left all by his lonesome than Bird.

Now it appears he’s one-third of the franchise’s three-man

managerial weave along with Simon and new team president Jim

Morris.

Simon has been quoted as saying he should have entered the

Pacers’ decision-making mix years ago. Hindsight is always 20-20,

which these days would also qualify as a good won-loss record for

the Pacers.

What Herb Simon is doing takes guts. The immediate future of the

franchise he co-owns is at stake, not to mention a portion of his

reputation. Simon is visible now and that makes a difference.

Applaud Simon even if what he is doing reduces the role of a

revered Indiana figure like Bird. For no other reason, it might be the

only clapping the man has heard in a while.



Mike Beas writes for The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Ind. He can

be reached at mike.beas@heraldbulletin.com.

        

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