Reggie Miller didn't make it into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a first-ballot candidate last week, but people shouldn't be hanging their heads five-time NBA All-Star. The latest reports say that Miller, a standout for the Indiana Pacers during his 18-year career, is now being mentioned as a candidate to return to the team as its general manager.
Reggie Miller Is A Candidate For Indiana Pacers GM Job, According To Report
Miller doesn’t have any front office experience as the sharpshooter has been working in television since his retirement from the game, but that isn’t stopping Pacers owner from making him the lead candidate to be the Pacers’ next GM, according to a report from Yahoo! Sports.
Indiana Pacers owner Herb Simon has heeded Larry Bird’s private and public proclamations that Bird is working his final year as the team’s president, that his staying through the lockout had been a favor to his boss. As Simon investigates possible succession plans, there’s one candidate emerging over everyone else: Pacers legend Reggie Miller.
Bird, an Indiana basketball legend is his own right, said earlier in the summer that he’d agreed to stick with the team through the NBA lockout season after previously planning on retiring prior to the season as a favor to Simon. Since, the Pacers have brought on highly-regarded Kevin Pritchard to join Bird and David Morway in the Indiana front office, but Adrian Wojnarowski’s sources believe that Simon would prefer to bring Miller aboard.
Interestingly enough, it seems that if Simon gets his way and Miller joins the Pacers, former Pacers executive Donnie Walsh -- who recently stepped down from the same job with the New York Knicks -- would be the Pacers owner's pick as a mentor to Miller as the former player and analyst makes his transition into the front office.
It seems like Miller would be hired next offseason rather than the current one with Bird still aboard. If it happens, however, Miller would be the second TNT analyst to make the transition from television to an NBA role without any prior experience after Miller's colleague Mark Jackson was hired as the new head coach of the Golden State Warriors.
Ah, NBA decision making. It’s fantastic!
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