Harrington still a Pacer for now; he won't start
By Sekou Smith
sekou.smith@indystar.com
June 25, 2004
Al Harrington watched the NBA draft Thursday night without worry, knowing that
his status wouldn't change by this morning.
While his name was bandied about in trade rumors leading up to the draft, nothi
ng happened.
"I knew (Wednesday night) that nothing was going to happen right now," Harringt
on said by phone from Florida, where he trains in the offseason. "I can't say w
hat might happen in the future because I honestly don't know right now."
The Pacers' third-leading scorer and the runner-up for the NBA's Sixth Man Awar
d, Harrington's desire to start has been a topic of public discussion since Dec
ember.
During his exit interview with the Pacers three weeks ago, Harrington requested
a trade to a team that could offer a more substantial role.
Many teams reportedly were interested in Harrington, who averaged 13.3 points a
nd 6.4 rebounds last season. The 24-year-old's potential for improvement is one
reason for the strong interest.
Cleveland selected Luke Jackson with the 10th pick. The scenario most often ass
ociated with Harrington before the draft was that he would be traded to Clevela
nd for a chance to move up and draft Jackson.
By the time the Pacers selected Colorado center David Harrison with the last pi
ck of the first round (No. 29), it became clear that the Pacers would not make
any deals on draft night.
Pacers president Larry Bird made it clear Thursday night that if Harrington ret
urns for a seventh season, it will be as a reserve.
"(Al's) position is Ronnie Artest's and Jermaine O'Neal's," Bird said, "so if h
e (Harrington) is here, he'll be coming off the bench."
But Bird and Pacers coach Rick Carlisle expressed trepidation about parting wit
h a player of Harrington's caliber.
"When you talk about trading a high-level, veteran player, a guy like an Al Har
rington, you're talking about now trading away one of your hottest assets," Car
lisle said. "I thought Larry demonstrated a lot of restraint the last couple of
days because we were involved in a lot of things.
"One thing we did find out in the last two or three days is this guy (Harringto
n) has huge value."
Bird said he could point to 20 games the Pacers won last season in large part b
ecause of Harrington.
"When you talk about trading Al, you're talking about trading one of your harde
st workers, a tough kid and a kid who plays hurt," Bird said. "And if Johnny Be
nder and Austin (Croshere) weren't sitting there, Al's name would never come up
. It's hard to let a player go who works as hard as Al Harrington does every da
y.
"We've got some tough decisions to make if we do decide to let Al move on."
看起來 Al 是真的真的很想先發，但是小歐和阿泰的位置又不能動，希望小哈可以乖乖的
當個第六人呀...Manu 當第六人不是也很快樂咩？先拿個 Sixth Man Award 有什麼不好，
說不定以後沒機會拿到耶...>"<
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