West leaving Pacers, blames Bird, team not being title contenders
David West opted out of the final year of his contract, and he says his belief that the Indiana Pacers are not title contenders is a big reason why.
West spoke with WTHR's Bob Kravitz Wednesday to explain his thinking.
"At this point in my career, I just want to win," West told WTHR's Kravitz. "I'm just not sure the Pacers are in title contention right now. I'm going into my 13th season. I'll be 35 soon. When I got to Indiana, there was hope of getting there and we played at a really high level for a couple of years.
"But I just don't know if the team is in the position to win right now and I didn't know if I'd have that opportunity to win a title if I'd stayed with the Pacers."
West was scheduled to earn $12.6 million next season but is turning that down for the chance at playing for a team he feels is closer to a title. That's the same reason he dismissed reports saying he was close to signing with the Knicks.
In addition to his desire to play for a contender, West told Kravitz that he was bothered by the way Larry Bird, the team's president of basketball operations, threw Roy Hibbert under the bus after the season.
"I'll be honest with you, that bothered me a little bit, and I told Roy that," West said. "I'm the type of guy who feels like we're all in this fight together and I'm not designed in that way to put it all on one guy.
"That did rub me the wrong way. That threw me off. I started reading some of that stuff, I started thinking, 'Whoaa.' I just didn't feel good about that. I told Roy that it bothered me, that he's still my teammate."
West, no longer feeling the loyalty to the Pacers after that happened, categorized that as the last straw.
West turns 35 before next season (on Aug. 29) and is running out of time to win a ring. He averaged 11.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists last season, his fourth with the Pacers after playing eight years with New Orleans.
The Xavier University product was a back-to-back NBA All-Star in 2008 and '09. During his 12-year career, he has averaged 15.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists, with a personal-best 21.0 points in 2008-09.
West has been to the playoffs six times — three with New Orleans and three with Indiana — but never advanced to the NBA Finals. He made it to the Eastern Conference finals twice with the Pacers, but was eliminated both times by the Miami Heat, in seven games in 2013 and six games in 2014.
Given his new attitude, he sure appears to have lost that ego that Ray Allen criticized him for. We imagine plenty of teams will be interested in signing West for the 2015-16 season.
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