Indiana Pacers President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird accomplished three things Wednesday:

? He fired Isiah Thomas as head coach after three winning but still disappointing seasons.

? He dubbed former Pacers assistant Rick Carlisle the likely successor to Thomas.

? He put his stamp on the NBA franchise six weeks after being hired.

Bird returned to the franchise he coached from 1997-2000 to take over the daily basketball decisions from longtime President Donnie Walsh. He rolled up his sleeves immediately after his introductory news conference at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Neither Bird nor Walsh, now Pacers Sports & Entertainment's chief executive officer and president, gave many details about Thomas' dismissal. Both cited communication and direction of the team as keys to the decision.

It's one Pacers All-Star forward Jermaine O'Neal, steadfast in his support of Thomas, doesn't agree with.

"Am I disappointed? Hell, yeah. I'm extremely disappointed for multiple reasons," O'Neal said after the U.S. Olympic qualifying team of which he's a member defeated Mexico in San Juan, Puerto Rico. "I was told he would be here before I re-signed.

"If your boss told you your ace is going to be there for you if you come back, and once you come back not even a month later he's not there, that hurts. That hurts a lot. He was more than a coach to me. He was like a father."

Bird said he came into the job with an open mind but didn't like what he's seen since.

"The last week or so, we've had a lot of conversations," he said. "We didn't like how last year ended, especially in the playoffs and at the end of the season when we ended up (14-19).

"Our major concern was to get off to a good start and hopefully have a good year. But after we talked more and more about it, we thought if things got off to a rocky start then we'd have to go the other way. Bringing in a new coach in midseason would be very difficult on the team.

"Today we decided to let Isiah go. It's a tough decision, but a decision we had to make."