"Any one of these players" - Larry Bird threatened to trade Indiana players in 2007 who would show a lack of discipline

By the time the Indiana Pacers concluded their 2006-07 season, the team president, Larry Bird, wasn’t just disappointed.

He was simmering.

It wasn’t just the losing record (35-47) that grated on him, but the extracurricular nonsense that the Pacers players did at the time.

Bird had a visceral distaste for the infamous “Malice at the Palace” back in 2004 and he demanded that his players be more disciplined since then. He had already started the housecleaning by shipping out the volatile duo of Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson, signaling that talent would no longer serve as an excuse for headaches.

Larry Legend made it crystal clear to the remaining players on the roster that if they weren’t willing to act like true professionals, they better be ready to pack their bags.

Bird’s ultimatum was very applicable to point guard Jamaal Tinsley, who had been a repeat offender at the time, having been involved in bar fights.

“We don’t know the direction,” Bird said of the Pacers’ future at the time. “We have an idea, but if there’s something out there that can be a major trade, we’ll probably do it if it benefits us.”

“It’s an embarrassment,” he admitted. “What we’ve done is we’ve gotten rid of the players. We traded them guys and we will continue to trade them in the future if we have trouble with them.”

Bird wanted the new coach to know about his plan early on

Larry was dead serious about rebuilding. In a move that proved his commitment to improving, he fired Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle that very summer. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, considering they were former Boston Celtics teammates and have been friends for a long time.

However, Bird felt that the locker room culture needed a shock to the system. He firmly emphasized that whoever stepped into that coaching vacancy needed to know one thing from Day 1: there would be zero tolerance for a lack of discipline and nobody was untouchable.

“He’s got to understand going in that we will trade any one of these players and it might not be what he likes, but he’s got to know that going in,” Bird sent a message to the next coach, who turned out to be Jim O’Brien in the ned.

Bird finally pulled the plug

Despite having a new coach, the Pacers still did not meet Bird’s expectations. They struggled to mesh and finished the 2007-08 season with a 36-46 record, failing to make it to the postseason once again.

That very summer, Bird decided it was time to move the final heavy pieces of the old squad. He pulled the trigger on a franchise-altering roster move.

All-Star big man Jermaine O’Neal was sent to the Toronto Raptors along with Nathan Jawai. In return, the Pacers got TJ Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, Maceo Baston and the draft rights to the 7’2″ center from Georgetown, Roy Hibbert.

It was a massive overhaul that effectively ended one chapter of Pacers history and began another. In 2010, Indy drafted Paul George out of Fresno State and Bird brought in second-rounder Lance Stephenson. Three years later, the Pacers evolved into a championship team, making it to the Eastern Conference finals twice in a row.

This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Mar 26, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

“Any one of these players” – Larry Bird threatened to trade Indiana players in 2007 who would show a lack of discipline

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