Pacers Courtside

With barely any time left, the Pacers signed a contract extension with Danny Granger. The Indy Star has reported it is a five year extension beginning next year, and it’s worth $60 to $64 million. That is fair market value for Danny and the Pacers would have probably paid more if they let Danny go into free agency tomorrow. The amount of money and number of years really doesn’t matter that much because this needed to be done. It’s good that Granger felt the same:

“I’m very happy we were able to get an extension done. I’d like to thank the Simons, Larry Bird, David Morway, Jim O’Brien, the assistant coaches, my teammates and the entire Pacers’ organization. I’m very excited about the direction our team is going and I’m glad that I can have a part in the future of this franchise. I think we can have something very special here.”

Danny’s manager, Mark Bartelstein, also had some positive comments.

“You have a great emerging player. I think the Pacers are trying to rebuild the franchise and I think to let Danny get into restricted free agency when you never know what could happen, I think it was a terrific move on their part to get Danny locked up. It shows how much he means to them.”

Larry Bird said that Danny Granger is a very good player, very important part of their future, and a great young man on and off the court. It’s pretty hard to disagree with any of that. Thanks for sticking with us Danny.