Larry Bird will address the media Thursday morning.
The Indiana Pacers announced Wednesday morning that Larry Bird, the President of Basketball Operations, will hold a press conference Thursday at 11:00 a.m. ET at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
The purpose of the presser was not noted.
With head Frank Vogel’s contract expiring at the end of the season, the Pacers will either have to agree on a new deal or go in separate directions. It’s unclear if this press conference was called specifically for that reason, or to serve as the annual end-of-season presser.
The basketball office held exit interviews with the players on Tuesday as they traditionally do a few days after their season concludes. As I reported Tuesday night, players met individually with Vogel in his office after they had a meeting upstairs with the front office. That’s the normal routine.
See Also: Business as usual for the Pacers as Bird decides on Vogel’s future
On SiriusXM NBA Radio Wednesday afternoon, former Pacer Danny Granger was asked about the situation and a coach of his for almost six seasons.
The following tweeted was fired off by the official account, but hours later it was deleted. Fortunately I manually retweeted it.
RT @SiriusXMNBA: Danny Granger expects his former Coach Frank Vogel to be fired tomorrow #Pacers
— Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) May 4, 2016
Later, audio was posted to likely clarify Granger’s assessment of the situation.
“Frank Vogel is one of the great human beings I know. A great coach. Me and Frank have a great relationship. Definitely a great coach, a great human so I’ve never had a problem working with Frank.
“For the most part, what I think is going on in Indiana is — and I don’t think you need to be there or within the organization to see this — but for a press conference to be called and no one knows what’s going to be discussed, including Frank Vogel, and that’s from the reports I’ve heard, that he doesn’t even know what’s going to be discussed, then, obviously, I think the writing is on the wall of what will be discussed.
“I don’t know why they would call a press conference to say we’re going to retain a coach if you’re just going to retain the coach anyways. Something is happening there.”
Listen for yourself:
Vogel has not made any public comments and 15 minutes after the announcement, he reportedly still wasn’t aware of his future with the franchise.
Larry Bird set his annual end-of-season news conference for Thursday. He hasn't informed Frank Vogel of future, sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 4, 2016
Vogel has the most wins — 250 — in NBA franchise history and is one short of the most playoff victories in NBA franchise history, held by Bird (31). The Pacers reached the postseason in his five and half seasons as head coach; the exception being the 2014-15 season where Paul George missed 76 games due to a compound fracture in his right leg.