Frank Vogel Didn’t Beg Larry Bird For His Job
By Ben Gibson
The former Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel says he didn’t beg Larry Bird for this job.
When Larry Bird explained why he let Frank Vogel go, he thought it would be a great time to say Frank begged for his job.
It has been a few weeks since then but finally Vogel has responded to the assertion that he was groveling before Bird to stay as the Indiana Pacers head coach.
Frank said he didn’t beg to stay when he talked on The Dan Dakich Show earlier this week.
"“I was OK with that. Larry’s going to speak his mind. A lot of people talked to me about it who didn’t like that and it’s probably an inaccurate perception that I was begging him to stay. … I fully respect Larry and the process. He knew it was going to be an unpopular move but he did what he had to do.“I felt like we were on the verge of some big things. We stood toe-to-toe with a 56-win team. I told my team after the series that were poised … I felt like I was going to be able to do that with this group. That was my only mention to Larry.”"
It is a matter of talking one man over the other for their word, but I don’t see a reason to question Vogel’s account.
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Bird was ready to let Vogel go and merely was trying to throw out some excuses to say it was time for the team to move on, but the team president didn’t articulate it in a way that lined up with his stated reasoning. Other than Bird’s 3-year rule for coaches, he didn’t give many solid reasons for the move as even he admitted Vogel hadn’t lost the locker room.
That’s fine as even Frank agreed that it might have been time to move on, but considering Bird’s surly personality, it doesn’t seem far-fetched that he’d phrase the situation in such an embarrassing way for Vogel.
Vogel also said the perception that he and Bird were so far apart in ideology was also a misconception.
"That’s a misconception about this whole view. Larry and I have been very well aligned all the way through these six years, including the decision to try to play faster and smaller this year,” Vogel said. “This is not something I was resistant to. It’s a style of play I’m going to try to implement with the Orlando Magic. … There was a lot made about Larry vs. Frank and the differences. But throughout the whole process, we were very well aligned.‘It wasn’t about difference of opinion or difference of philosophy. It was about change.”"
It is in the past now, but Vogel’s departure from Indiana wasn’t as smooth as it could have been, and that’s entirely on Bird.
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At this point, all this is more of an epilogue to the end of Vogel’s tenure than anything else, but at least Frank has gotten his chance to tell his side of the story.