Indiana Pacers: Top 5 Coaches In Franchise History

2. Larry Bird

Tenure: 3 seasons (1997-00)
Regular Season Winning %: .687
Playoff Winning %: .615
Conference Titles: 1

Basketball fans know Larry Bird’s history: small-town basketball superstar in the state of Indiana, college superstar at Indiana State University and one of the top NBA players of all time.

Once Bird retired from the NBA in 1992 and his body began to recover from 13 years of professional basketball, he began to look for opportunities to get back into the game in some capacity.

Bird briefly worked as a consultant for the Celtics and he was eventually offered the head coaching position with the Indiana Pacers in 1997.

The Pacers made the Eastern Conference Finals all three years that Larry Bird was their coach, culminating in an NBA Finals appearance in 2000.

Bird stated when he accepted the job that he feels the shelf life of an NBA head coach is three years and that he would resign after his third season in Indiana. True to his word, Bird left coaching after the 1999-00 campaign.

It is fair to point out that Larry Bird inherited a veteran team and had the support of experienced assistant coaches during his tenure, but leading a talented, experienced team is not always as easy as it seems.

Bird allowed his assistants to handle most of the details, while he took on the role of overseer. This worked very well with the roster Bird had, and when he did choose to speak up about something, the players listened intently.

Larry Bird’s coaching career may have been brief, but he engineered the Pacers’ most successful three-year run since the team has been in the NBA.