I Do Not Believe Larry Bird When He Says He Didn’t Talk About Paul George with Magic

Larry Bird told the Los Angeles Times’ Tania Ganguli that he “wasn’t motivated” to trade Paul George to the Los Angeles Lakers.

I do not believe Larry Bird when he says he “wasn’t motived” to trade Paul George, despite plenty of rumors.

But that’s OK even if he is lying to us.

According to an interview with Los Angeles Times’ Tania Ganguli, Bird says he wasn’t even sure he and Magic Johnson talked about it.

"Bird planned to call Johnson after the NBA trade deadline, just to congratulate his old friend on becoming the Lakers’ president of basketball operations. It’s the same title Bird has held for most of 14 years with the Indiana Pacers.Johnson beat Bird to it. The phone call lasted less than five minutes, consisted mostly of small talk and might have touched only briefly on the fate of Indiana star Paul George.“I wasn’t motivated to move Paul George at the deadline,” Bird said. “I can’t remember if it was even brought up or not. I don’t think it was. It’s all fake news anyway. You know that. Somebody’s gonna start it and [it] just was a snowball effect. [The phone call] was not about Paul George.”They talked about their families, about how life had been. Bird, 60, called the 57-year-old Johnson crazy for trying this at his age."

He doesn’t go as far to completely deny it. Using the word “motivated” allows him to possibly acknowledge it happened without confirming it either way. That sounds like a Glomar response, or at worst an outright lie.

But again, that’s OK if it is a lie. Larry Bird might as well lie about it — if he is lying — and not embrace the rumors at all. It was obvious the deadline shenanigans didn’t make Paul George happy. For the Pacers, Bird might as well walk away from the situation publically so that it at least appears true. It also sends the right message to Paul George — hopefully — that it was never a serious option.

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One thing to remember is this is Bird being interviewed about Magic. It can be true that they didn’t talk about Paul George and for Bird to have discussed trades with the Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics, or other teams. This could be exactly what happened and I’m wrong for even suggesting Bird lied. His words aren’t 100% clear if he meant only that he and Magic didn’t talk about it or if he didn’t talk about trading PG with anyone.

But there are other reasons to not believe Bird here.

First, it seems crazy that several reporters got it wrong. Adrian Wojnarowski, Sam Amick, and others appeared to have different tidbits of information during the trade deadline chaos. Bird describing it as “fake news” is an easy way to throw in a buzzword and touch on the general contempt the public has for the media at large.

Secondly, Magic and the Lakers do want to make a splash sooner or later to reaffirm the franchise’s status a destination for stars. With George being a lifelong Lakers fan and respecting Magic and the franchise so much, it is hard to believe the subject never came up. Trading with the Lakers might be the best way for Indiana to get the most back in return thanks to that factor as well as Magic and Bird’s friendship.

Lastly, it would be front office malpractice not to explore the trade market for a star player. PG isn’t locked into being a Pacer beyond 2018, so unless you can create a contender before then, you probably should know the market for George. It isn’t going to be fun for Indiana to think about if Paul leaves in free agency, but it is a necessary reality for Bird and the front office to consider.

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Even if they did shop Paul George at the deadline, there isn’t value in talking about it now. Either way, it isn’t a big deal if Bird is misleading us. I just don’t believe him when he says that he wasn’t even sure if they talked about Paul George.