Pacers President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird discussed the state of the NBA prior to last night's game against the Celtics and said team front offices "spend a lot more time now" on player background checks and are more familiar with incoming players "than we were 25 years ago," according to Dan Shaughnessy of the BOSTON GLOBE. Bird said, "They come in so young. ... It's tough for these kids. They go from being high school All-Americans to one year of college and being drafted high, and then they come in here and they expect they’re going to walk in here and take over, and that’s not the way it’s going to be." Bird noted it is not possible to win a championship without a superstar on a team's roster, saying, "It all comes down to how much you’re willing to spend for players." He said, "If you get the right superstar, will other players come and play with him? It’s the same old thing. The draft has a lot to do with it. You have to hope that if you have a high draft pick, one’s going to become a so-called star. You’ve got to have the players. It’s always been that way." Shaughnessy writes it is "hard to turn things around quickly in the NBA," and teams that finish with the 7 or 8 seed "sometimes get stuck there." Bird: "If you just barely make the playoffs, you’ve got to get very lucky in the draft. And a lot of the teams are not going to spend up to the tax every year to try to build a team. The small markets have it tough. It’s just how you manage it. Hopefully you get lucky in the draft and get a couple that can take you over the hump" (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/12).
