Interesting quotes from Mark Jackson. Sounds like he wouldn't have thought Bird would have been good for the Celtics three years ago, either.
Jim
http://www.starnews.com/sports/indianasgame/pacers/articles/jside1024.html
TORONTO -- Mark Jackson says he enjoyed playing for Larry Bird the past three seasons with the Pacers. But he expects Isiah Thomas to be more effective as a coach.
"When you talk about coaches, there's a whole different caliber out there (than Bird)," Jackson said. "Isiah Thomas is a coach. Larry Bird would tell you, he had an offensive coordinator and a defensive coordinator. And sometimes those guys (Rick Carlisle and Dick Harter) need to sit back and shut up.
"But we had a great run. For us, he was probably the coach that was needed. We needed a guy to sit back and let us run the show because we had a bunch of guys who knew what to do. Would he work with the team they have now? Absolutely not. But he did a great job with us."