by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
Larry Bird’s days in the Indiana Pacers’ front-office are numbered, and as team owner Herb Simon looks around for a replacement, one name seems to be showing up over all others.
According to Yahoo! Sports, Simon would like to hire Reggie Miller for the job, but it won’t be easy to convince Reggie to walk away from his TNT analyst gig:
Simon has been canvassing people he respects – including his longtime former general manager Donnie Walsh – for opinions about how they believe Miller would do with the transition from television to management. Several people with longstanding ties to Miller and the Pacers are pushing Miller to pursue the job, and as one tells Yahoo! Sports: “He’s going to look hard at this, if it’s presented in the right way.”
Simon has considered this possibility for several years, sources said, and thinks the timing could be right to groom Miller to run his basketball operations. This is likely Miller’s one chance to ever run a team. And where else would he rather do it, but in the city, the state, where he became basketball royalty?
Even as a beloved figure in Indiana, it’d be a very tough choice for Reggie Miller (who has no experience running a team) to make. Why would he walk away from a high-paying, relatively stress-free television job for the never-ending grind of NBA front-office life?
If Miller ultimately declines to take Herb Simon’s offer, the report above states that Chris Mullin is also considered a strong candidate for the gig.
