Frank Vogel has pleaded with his team to keep quiet. (USATSI)
Every team, at some point or another during the season, has its struggles. The timing of the Pacers' recent slump isn't ideal – they've won seven of their last 17 games – and, not surprisingly, they've had to navigate significant not-so-internal bickering all while trying to stave off the surging Heat.
Maybe you saw Roy Hibbert's quotes about “selfish dudes” on the Pacers, or perhaps you caught a whiff of Indiana's discontent when Hibbert spouted off that his team was “splintering” and “spiraling”.
Miss the quotes? Maybe you saw that George Hill and Lance Stephenson had to be physically separated as the Pacers were getting pummeled by San Antonio earlier this week.
“The Pacers are experiencing a leadership void at the moment,” according to Brian Windhorst, “and the only thing they're racking up faster than turnovers and bad shots is finger pointing.”
Lance Stephenson takes too many ill-advised shots. Paul George is having trouble adjusting to his new-found stardom as evident with several off-the-court incidents. The Danny Granger trade shook-up locker room chemistry. And on and on.
Frank Vogel's tired of it, and he said as much to the Indianapolis Star.
“It bothers me,” Vogel said of the public bickering from his team. “Guys should never air in-house stuff to the media. I talked to the team about it [on Wednesday].
“It was a weird thing. Roy said it a couple days ago [after the loss to the Wizards] and nobody really caught onto it until [recently]. So I made sure to tell them that A) I don't believe we have ‘selfish dudes' in our locker, and B) whatever you might want to say about your teammates, don't say it to the media. We have to get that stopped.”
Vogel's even had to manage a rather poignant jab at himself from his boss, team President Larry Bird. In mid-March, Bird told the Indy Star that he wanted Vogel to hold his players more accountable.
“I think he's got to start going after guys when they're not doing what they're supposed to do,” Bird said of Vogel. “And stay on them. Whether you've got to take them out of the game when they're not doing what they're supposed to do or limit their minutes. I will say he hasn't done that enough.”
Asked specifically if those comments irked Vogel, and he said no.
These are choppy times for the Pacers, who aren't accustomed to being the hunted. But that's part of maturing and progressing, and something their primary competition, Miami, had to deal with as well.
The Pacers, now one game behind Miami in the loss column, can still right the ship with six games left, including one massive matchup at Miami on April 11. But it's going to take restraint and discipline -- two pillars that one of the league's model franchises has been sorely lacking in recent weeks.
Basketball Hot News
Chris Bosh still has one of Pat Riley’s championship rings
When LeBron James was considering multiple teams in free agency during the summer of 2010, Heat executive Pat Riley famously threw his championship rings on the table in the ultimate show of legitimacy to close the deal.
The rings at this point are selling tools more than they are personal treasures, as evidenced by the fact that Riley was willing to give one away in order to land one of his most important free agent recruits.
From Michael Wallace of ESPN.com:
Riley dropped a bag full of title rings on LeBron’s table in Cleveland during their 2010 meeting. He has flashed at least one of them to a few other free-agent targets over the years.
Bosh took matters a step further.
“He gave me one of his championship rings from 2006, and was like, ‘You give me that back when you come here and win yours.’” Bosh said. “So I took it. I was like, ‘Oh, man!’ Don’t tell me to take something if you don’t want me to take it. I’ve still got it, too. But I told him I’d give it back after this year.”
Bosh now has two rings of his own that he earned over the past two seasons in Miami. But the one from Riley he still possesses may mean almost as much.
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