Just four short years ago, David West made the decision to join the young Indiana Pacers over the already established Boston Celtics in free agency. He took a two-year, $20 million contract instead of joining what could have been a championship caliber team and wanted to build something special in Indiana. That is exactly what he did over the past four year, but he showed his true colors this offseason with his decision to opt out of the final year of his contract.

Opting out of his deal wasn’t the big issue, but it is the comments that he made yesterday in an interview with Bob Kravitz that are extremely disappointing.

Basically West opted out because he didn’t feel the Pacers could compete for a title this year or in the near future. Wants to win now.

— Bob Kravitz (@bkravitz) July 2, 2015

West said he started thinking about a change after watching the Finals and started thinking how much he’d like a shot at a ring.

— Bob Kravitz (@bkravitz) July 2, 2015

Not the reason he left, but West was very annoyed at the way the Pacers, specifically Bird, took shots at Hibbert during post-season presser

— Bob Kravitz (@bkravitz) July 2, 2015

Wanting to compete for a championship elsewhere would have been fine with the Pacers and their fans, but West had to run his mouth. Stating that he doesn’t think the Pacers will compete, calling out the front office and giving up on everything the Pacers have built around him and done for him is exactly the type of thing that fans didn’t expect of West. Simply leaving quietly and thanking the fans for their support was all that needed to be done.

First of all, West has always been proud of the Pacers building the contender that they were. It was always something that the Pacers had over the Miami Heat during their back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals runs — they were built and not bought. West is ditching ship to chase a championship ring, which is exactly what the “Big Three” did in Miami.

Secondly, to say that the Pacers cannot compete for a title in 2015 is absolutely absurd. Indiana nearly made the playoffs in a season where Paul George missed all but six games due to a gruesome broken leg, and plenty of other key players missed time as well.

Perhaps the most disappointing and hurtful part of his comments was the attitude that he showed towards the Pacers front office. Casting doubt on a general manager and openly calling him out for comments he made about a player in the press conferences following the season simply makes it more difficult for Indiana to move forward and bring in players to help build a contender.

In response to those ridiculously ignorant comments from West, the fact of the matter is that Hibbert has been one of the most inconsistent players in the NBA over the past couple years. Saying that not being guaranteed playing time next season is “taking shots” proves that West should take a trip to the nearest grade school and sign up for classes.

West truly showed his true colors, and unfortunately they paint him as a ring chaser who takes shots at a team that gave him everything they could.

Larry Bird easily could have dumped West off on any team he wanted to at the trade deadline last year, but he didn’t want to give up on West after everything he had done for Indiana. West decided to back that up by ditching the Pacers and making nasty comments on his way out of town? That’s the exact type of classlessness that will be remembered the next time Indiana faces West when he sells himself out to play for a contender.

Indiana can be very thankful that they don’t have to worry about West looking like a worn out shell of his former self anymore. He didn’t do much for the Pacers last season that was positive, and it’s time for a new era of basketball. While West will always be thanked for the hard work he put in while he was around, he completely ruined his legacy in Indiana because he couldn’t keep his big mouth shut.

Evan Massey is a featured writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter at@Massey_Evan and like him on Facebook.