Despite the Indiana Pacers having a president and general manager in place, a franchise official called the San Antonio Spurs for permission to speak to assistant general manager Dennis Lindsey about a prominent front-office job, Eastern Conference sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Jim Morris, who runs the organization’s business side, reached out to Spurs officials to talk to Lindsey, sources said. The call was received with trepidation, sources said, as Lindsey and the Spurs made clear there would be no conversations as long as Pacers president Larry Bird and GM David Morway still occupied their current jobs.

It is unclear whether the call was made with the blessing of Bird, or made discreetly on behalf of owner Herb Simon.