Frank Vogel Speaks About His Indiana Exit and Why Larry Bird Wanted to Move On

In a recent radio interview, Frank Vogel added his two cents about why Larry Bird wanted a new coach for the Indiana Pacers.

Frank Vogel was formally introduced as the new head coach of the Orlando Magic yesterday. He is of course focused on the future with his new team, but he also spent some time during a radio interview with ESPN’s Mike & Mike to talk about the end of his tenure in Indiana.

Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports transcribed the conversation, which led off with this in regards to the Pacers.

Mike & Mike: With the Pacers, did it completely catch you off guard? Were you completely surprised by this?

Vogel: Not entirely. I was a little bit surprised. I had felt like we had gotten through, sort of a transition period with our franchise, with the Pacers. From the standpoint of Paul George missing the entire year with the injury and knowing his first year back was still going to be an adjustment period for him and Myles Turner being his rookie year and changing our style of play, we felt like it was going to be a transition year. I felt like we managed it pretty well and made a good run at Toronto as a seventh seed.

But, at the end of the day, you don’t know what the direction of the franchise is going to be. I was in the last year of my contract, so all year I did have the understanding that this could happen. You have to respect Larry Bird and the Pacers franchise for making a tough call, but doing what they feel is right.

This is typical Frank Vogel.

He is reverent and respectful. He acknowledges that he believes he did good work, but that he recognizes that his boss may have felt differently.

In talking more, he also expressed his gratitude to the team and noted that Larry Bird is free to do whatever Larry Bird wants to do.

Mike & Mike: We were a little taken aback, when Larry Bird said, basically the shelf life of a coach, I’m paraphrasing now, is three years in the NBA. We know that’s how long he coached in Indiana. Did he say that to you?

Vogel: He didn’t say three years, but he did say that at a certain point in time changing the voice of the head coach is good for an organization. He felt like this was the right time for the Pacers. It’s natural, it’s not anything that’s really indicting of me or the job that I did, but he has always felt that that type of change can be good for a franchise.

Again, Larry’s been terrific to me, gave me the opportunity of a lifetime six years ago. The Simon family was wonderful to me. I have nothing but positive feelings about the Pacers.

Vogel also talked about the notion of a rift existing between him and Bird about playing uptempo. The Pacers did in fact play quite a bit faster this year than in prior seasons, upping their possessions per game to 96.6  in 2015-16 (11th in this NBA) after only having 93.2 (19th) last season, per Basketball-Reference.

The on-court results confirm Vogel’s position here that playing faster was “not something I was resistant to.”

Mike & Mike: There was a feeling around the league anyway, that he wanted to play a more up-tempo offensive style and perhaps he felt like that isn’t what you wanted to coach. Did you ever talk to him about the style you were playing, the changes he was interested in making, was that part of the discussion?

Vogel: No, that’s a misconception about this whole deal. Larry and I have been very well aligned all the way through these six years, including the decision to try and play faster and smaller. This is not something I was resistant to.

It’s a style of play that I am going to try and implement with the Orlando Magic. We’re going to try and get up and down and run the floor. There was a lot made when this all came out about Larry vs. Frank and their differences, but really throughout the whole process we were very well aligned. It was just a matter of a feeling that a change in the voice of the head coach could give the franchise a boost. It wasn’t about a difference of opinion or a difference in philosophy; it was really just about change.

I imagine we won’t be hearing a lot more from Frank Vogel about his exit.

The past is the past and he seems ready to move on to coach a new team where the person in charge wants him there.