Before the Indiana Pacers’ game against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, Pacers president Larry Bird made a casual reference to Deflategate, calling the ordeal a “whole bunch of lying” that was made up by WTHR.com columnist Bob Kravitz, who first broke the story after the AFC Championship Game.
We really shouldn’t be surprised at this point, but Kravitz caught wind of Bird’s comments and decided to take him to task with an entire column devoted to ripping the Celtics legend.
In an article with the searing headline “What does Larry Bird know about Deflategate? Um, nothing,” Kravitz bashed Bird for “pandering” to the New England crowd and failing to back up his comments with proper scientific evidence.
“… (Bird) knows as much about Deflategate as I know about Bangladeshi history,” Kravitz wrote. “I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Bird has never read the Wells Report or any of the court briefs or anything else involved in Deflategate — as I have.
“I understand that in New England, if Larry Legend says it, it must be true. Here in Indiana, we know much better.”
Kravitz didn’t let Bird off the hook there, however. The columnist also dug up an apparent incident from this summer, accusing Bird of lying when the Pacers president denied that forward David West told Bird he planned to opt out of his contract before the NBA draft.
“West, the consummate straight shooter, was telling the truth,” Kravitz wrote. “And Bird was lying.”
Judging by the last line of Kravitz’s column, he really isn’t pleased with Bird at the moment:
“It’s one thing to be lied to time and time again during the West saga, it’s another thing to have your integrity questioned by someone who doesn’t have the first clue what they’re talking about. I take that quite seriously.”
Thumbnail photo via Brian Spurlock/USA TODAY Sports Images
