INDIANAPOLIS -- Larry Bird returned to the NBA and the Indiana Pacers on Friday, taking a front-office job with the team he coached to the league finals three years ago.


The Hall of Famer will be president of basketball operations, taking over day-to-day decision-making from Donnie Walsh, who led the franchise since 1986 and will stay on as its chief executive.


Isiah Thomas, left, and Larry Bird are looking forward to working together.



As a player, Bird won three NBA titles in the 1980s with the Boston Celtics.


He's been out of basketball since 2000, when he walked away from the Pacers at the end of a three-year coaching contract. His last Pacers team lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in that season's NBA Finals.


Back then, the Pacers offered Bird a top front-office job, with the option of becoming team president after Walsh retired.


But Bird decided to take a break because of an irregular heart beat, a condition it took a year to get under control with medicine. Now, with an increased energy level, Bird was ready to return to basketball.


"I was sort of worn down and didn't want a part of it, but I feel rejuvenated and ready to get to work,'' Bird said Friday.


Walsh now will oversee the Pacers' business operations and players' contracts, while Bird will be responsible for picking players and coaches and for scouting.


Walsh plans to stay with the Pacers four more years and expects that Bird will be his successor.


"I'm really happy to have him back where he belongs, in Indiana,'' Walsh said.


Bird was part of a group that tried to get the rights for an expansion franchise in Charlotte, but the league awarded that team to Robert Johnson in January.


Bird spoke with teams other than the Pacers about similar front-office jobs. He smiled Friday when asked whether he had given up on becoming an NBA owner, recalling a conversation with Pacers owners Herb and Mel Simon.


"I asked the Simons five, six years ago if they wanted to sell, and they wouldn't do it, so I doubt if it is in the foreseeable future,'' he said.


Bird went 147-67 in the regular season with the Pacers, the best three-year record in team history. The Pacers also won two Central Division championships, one Eastern Conference title and made their first trip to the NBA Finals.


He returns to a team that bears little resemblance to the veteran-laden roster that reached the 2000 championship series.


Bird's successor as coach, Isiah Thomas, has made three straight first-round exits from the playoffs. Bird and Thomas were both selected to the NBA's 50th anniversary team and played on rival teams in the late 1980s and early 1990s.


The two were to meet Friday for the first time as boss and coach.


"I was excited when I heard about it,'' Thomas said. "Any time you have a chance to put a group like this together, you have a chance to do something special.''


Bird said he was looking forward to working with Thomas and helping the Pacers re-sign free agents Reggie Miller and Brad Miller. The team is close to an agreement with its other top free agent, Jermaine O'Neal.


"My job and Donnie's job right now is to get Isiah the best players,'' Bird said.


A three-time MVP with the Celtics, Bird is one of the biggest stars in Indiana basketball history. He was a high school standout in his hometown of French Lick and then led Indiana State to the 1979 NCAA title game.


Walsh has had broad authority from the Simon brothers to manage the team, which he first joined as an assistant coach in 1984.


The Pacers never won more than 26 games in a season from 1982-86, but under Walsh they have made the playoffs 13 of the past 14 seasons.

Anyone have a free, simple, movie editor? Specifically, something that could edit mpg video files.

I can't seem to find one that I could download, even a sample one.



Edited By Ronin on 1057954943

today is free slurpee day and i really do not wanna miss out

Yeah, nothing really new here...I'll post the entire article, in case it's not there tomorrow

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/25/eveningnews/main560449.shtml">http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/ ... 0449.shtml</a><!-- m -->

Quote:Bush Knew Iraq Info Was False

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2003

(CBS) Senior administration officials tell CBS News the President’s mistaken claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa was included in his State of the Union address -- despite objections from the CIA.

Before the speech was delivered, the portions dealing with Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were checked with the CIA for accuracy, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.

CIA officials warned members of the President’s National Security Council staff the intelligence was not good enough to make the flat statement Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa.

The White House officials responded that a paper issued by the British government contained the unequivocal assertion: “Iraq has ... sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” As long as the statement was attributed to British Intelligence, the White House officials argued, it would be factually accurate. The CIA officials dropped their objections and that’s how it was delivered.

“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,” Mr. Bush said.

The statement was technically correct, since it accurately reflected the British paper. But the bottom line is the White House knowingly included in a presidential address information its own CIA had explicitly warned might not be true.

Today at a press conference during the President’s trip to Africa, Secretary of State Colin Powell portrayed it as an honest mistake.

“There was no effort or attempt on the part of the president or anyone else in the administration to mislead or to deceive the American people,” said Powell.

But eight days after the State of the Union, when Powell addressed the U.N., he deliberately left out any reference to Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Africa.

“I didn’t use the uranium at that point because I didn’t think that was sufficiently strong as evidence to present before the world,” Powell said.

That is exactly what CIA officials told the White House before the State of the Union. The top CIA official, Director George Tenet, was not involved in those discussions and apparently never warned the President he was on thin ice.

Secretary Powell said today he read the State of the Union speech before it was delivered and understood it had been seen and cleared by the intelligence community. But intelligence officials say the director of the CIA never saw the final draft.

Monkey Lover

ok i just installed a dvd recordable drive and i am wondering how to duplicate copy righted dvd's. aren't they protected and cant be burned? i ask because i tried to burn one alittle while ago and it didn't work. Maybe i did somehting wrong too. I'm new too this shit! I heard there is software that you can install that breaks the copy right code. I think DVD-copy X or some shit. any advice........... :-D

Quote:MILWAUKEE -- In a bizarre scene during a popular costume race at Milwaukee Brewers games, Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Randall Simon bopped a woman dressed as a huge Italian sausage with a bat and was arrested.


Simon


Prosecutors decided Thursday not to file criminal charges, though Simon was fined $432 for disorderly conduct.

The incident happened during the seventh-inning stretch, as four people dressed as an oversized bratwurst, a hot dog and Italian and Polish sausages were racing past the Pirates' dugout.

As they jogged by, Simon swatted the Italian sausage, who went down in a heap. The giant hot dog stumbled over the sausage and also tumbled to the ground. The two women wearing the costumes were treated for scraped knees.

"It was very strange," Pirates outfielder Reggie Sanders said.

Simon was booked for misdemeanor battery, but Deputy District Attorney Jon Reddin said Thursday that the women "were not interested in having him charged criminally" and didn't believe Simon meant to hurt them, so the battery charges were dismissed.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig issued a statement Thursday afternoon.

"Major League Baseball deeply regrets the incident that took place at Miller Park last night and extends its regards to the victims. We are reviewing the situation pending the disposition of the criminal charges against Randall Simon of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"Obviously, the type of behavior exhibited by Mr. Simon is anathema to the family entertainment that we are trying to provide in our ball parks and is wholly unacceptable.




Simon said he didn't deliberately try to knock down the 18-year-old in the sausage costume.

"That wasn't my intention in my heart for that to happen," he said before a Thursday game at Miller Park. "I was just trying to get a tap at the costume and for her to finish the race."

"I thought at the moment they were trying to play with us. They were running right next to the players," he said. "I'm a fun player, and I've never hurt anyone in my life."

Rock 102, a Milwaukee radio station, will allow listeners to take swings at a Simon pinata later in the afternoon.

Simon said after the game that he hoped to apologize to the woman before he left Milwaukee. Earlier Thursday, however, he said he had talked to her and, "I don't need to talk to her again. So I got nothing to say."

Sanders said he thought the weight of the sausage costume contributed to the fall. "It maybe made it look worse than it was," Sanders said. "It was an unfortunate situation and, hopefully, it gets resolved."

Rick Schlessinger, the Brewers' executive vice president for business operations, said he felt Simon's "conduct is just unjustified."

The Pirates issued a statement Thursday saying they do not condone Simon's behavior and will address the issue internally.

and everyone a gem.


like this gem.

Until this turns into a completely different subject by page 2.

Ass kicking

the funniest part was the cop car..

I am having a rough week and this brightened my day. So I thought I would share.



Edited By Ronin on 1057868005

new regulations of additional info on the label could help you fat fucks,
fyi, junk food will make ya fat.