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Tinsley: No hard feelings towards Pacers
Memphis Grizzlies guard Jamaal Tinsley has no animosity toward the Indiana Pacers. It dissipated after the 2007-08 season, when his former employer told him to stay away.The Pacers then removed any traces of Tinsley from the locker room and media guide and instructed employees not to mention his name on radio or television broadcasts. They forced him to sit out last season.
Tinsley, who played seven seasons with the Pacers, knew it was best for the parties to part."It didn't hurt my feelings at all," Tinsley said during a phone interview Thursday. "I gained a lot of stuff out of the situation. You realize and learn more stuff as you get older. I can't control how they feel about me. I have no bad feelings about them."I don't dislike them. It's a business. They wanted to move on, and I wanted to move on, too."
Tinsley signed a one-year deal with the Grizzlies in mid-November and will face his former team for the first time tonight, in Memphis."Just another game, a game we need to win," Tinsley said curtly.Tinsley is happy to be back in the league. He hadn't played since February 2008. There certainly was no guarantee of another chance after the off-court issues he had while with the Pacers, coupled with sittiTinsley passed the time traveling between Atlanta and Miami, waiting for the Pacers to trade or release him or buy out his contract.
He played pickup games in Miami. The NBA Players Association filed a grievance in February. The Pacers eventually bought out the final two years of Tinsley's contract for $10.7 million."It was tough; it was a long process," Tinsley said. "There was a lot of stuff going on. There was a lot of money involved with the contract that I wasn't willing to let go."Tinsley acknowledges his problems, which included being shot at outside a Downtown hotel, didn't help his stature with the franchise and community. "I'm not perfect; there's nobody perfect," he said. "That stuff can happen to anybody. Everybody has bad things happen to them, but they're not in the spotlight."
(IndyStar)