Larry Bird still believes it can work even after a second straight discouraging playoff exit in the Eastern Conference finals to Miami amid cries for change. The old-school Bird contends now is the time to stay the course.
"We've got a young team and we'd like to keep them together and let them develop together," said Bird, the Pacers' president of basketball operations.
"It's hard to get there (the NBA Finals), I know that," he said. "I feel we had a great season for this reason: They set their goal to have the No. 1 seed and they did. They set their goal to play Miami again and they did. But we ran into a better basketball team."