The Indiana Pacers have not been shy about expressing their displeasure during their current 7-10 stretch of play. They are slowly losing their grip on the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, mainly because they can’t find ways to score. Regardless of what their issues may be, Indiana head coach Frank Vogel wants his team to stop complaining.
Or, at the very least, Vogel doesn’t want to hear the Pacers whining with microphones in their faces.
“It bothers me,” Vogel said Wednesday, via Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star. “Guys should never air in-house stuff to the media. I talked to the team about it today (Wednesday).”
More specifically, Vogel seemed bothered by Roy Hibbert’s comments last week when he called his teammates selfish.
“It was a weird thing. Roy said it a couple of days ago (after the Washington loss) and nobody really caught onto it until (recently),” Vogel added. “So I made sure to tell them that A) I don’t believe we have ‘selfish dudes’ in our locker room and B) whatever you might want to say about your teammates, don’t say it to the media. We have to get that stopped.”
Pacers forward David West also said recently that the team does not play a “good brand of basketball.” Considering Indiana was — and still is — one of the best teams in the East, that seems like a bit of an overreaction.
“Every team has stretches like this, some in December, some in January,” Vogel said. “It just happens that it’s happening to us in March. I still think our guys really believe in what we have here. I think it’s going to stabilize and turn around for us.”
Better to happen in March than in late April, I suppose. But if the Pacers don’t lose the “sky is falling” mentality before the postseason begins, their bad stretch of play may continue.
