Pacers' pick a good one

The front page of the sports section in Thursday’s Indianapolis Star donned the hoops mug shots of the Pacers’ four main targets, according to team President Larry Bird. They were  Indianapolis’ own Jeff Teague of Wake Forest, Gerald Henderson Jr. of Duke, Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina and DeJuan Blair of Pittsburgh.

At first glance, to me at least, there was no question the Pacers should select Pike High School native Teague.

For the better part of four seasons the Pacers have possessed many detriments, ranging from stagnant guard play to gun fights to an empty Conseco Fieldhouse.

Teague would have been the only player to immediately effect all three of these problems.

This was a freshman who had an immediate impact in the ACC, averaging almost 14 points in one of the two toughest conferences in college basketball. This past season as a sophomore, he upped his points-per-game average to 18.9 and dropped more than 25 points eight times.

What the Pacers need is passion, coupled with a positive image in a community where guns and homicide have become more of a problem over the last couple of years.

Teague doesn’t have an image problem. I talked to him numerous times over the month of May and early part of June, and each time he conversed in a polite, respectful manner.

The passion part? When one person asked him how much he liked basketball last month in Indianapolis, he politely treated the question as a joke. To back that up, remember this past year’s contest where Teague scored 13 to lead his Demon Deacons past top-ranked Duke?

Finally, the fan base. How many Indianapolis residents do you think would have come out next season to watch their former hometown hero? It would be like Greg Oden or Eric Gordon’s return to Indianapolis, only on a consistent basis.

When all was said and done, Hansbrough was the choice of Bird & Co. Before I join the naysayers who chanted “overrated” Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, I’m buying into it until the minority group I am now part of is proven wrong.

On that note, this guy scored more points than guys like Michael Jordan, Bobby Hurley, Tim Duncan and Juan Dixon, to name a few. The mouthy gallery at the Garden must have been watching a different Tar Heel than the rest of us.

The Pacers’ front office obviously feels that Jarrett Jack and T.J. Ford have the amount of potential to complement above-average post play, something Bird feels the organization has lacked since the days of Jermaine O’Neal.

I by no means see Hansbrough claiming Rookie of the Year next season and would bet against him cementing an All-Star spot for the duration of his career. While he’s got the size and fundamentals of an NBA “big,” he lacks the point-A-to-point-B quickness required to defend the type of player who can play inside and out. With that type of 3/4 offensive hybrid becoming increasingly common, I see that as his main weakness.

With an aging Jeff Foster, a solid role player is exactly what the Pacers need to back up the rising Roy Hibbert, who Bird feels can be a franchise player in time.

Perhaps the biggest plus to this addition is the image factor. Hansbrough always placed team before self, exemplified by his four-year stay at in Chapel Hill for nothing more than winning a championship.

When asked by ESPN what the Pacers are getting, Hansbrough replied, “(They’re) getting a hard worker who knows how to win.”

Exactly what the Pacers need.