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12/09 05:00 CST Pacers coach Rick Carlisle closing in on 1,000 wins, and it'll
be a moment for the NBA to savor
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle closing in on 1,000 wins, and it'll be a moment for
the NBA to savor
By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
A big moment in NBA coaching history is looming. It might happen Friday. Maybe
on Sunday. Maybe sometime next week. But it's going to happen, and it's going
to be something the likes of which the league won't see again for at least a
few years.
Rick Carlisle is going to get his 1,000th career win as a coach.
It should be a moment to savor, although Carlisle --- the Indiana coach who is
now 999-878 in his career --- typically doesn't want much fanfare directed his
way. He'll become the 11th coach in NBA history to reach that milestone,
joining Gregg Popovich, Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry Sloan, Pat Riley,
George Karl, Doc Rivers, Phil Jackson, Larry Brown and Rick Adelman. With the
exception of Rivers, who is still coaching, they're all in the Basketball Hall
of Fame.
"It was a tough game. Great to win it," Carlisle said Monday night after
Indiana held off Sacramento, 116-105. "We've got some time to practice this
week, so we'll make the best of that. And, more tough games coming."
He sounded the same --- focused, direct, matter-of-fact --- after a game
between two sub-.500 clubs as he did last season when the Pacers were
contending for a title.
Getting to the 1,000-win mark is a capper to a 2025 worth savoring for
Carlisle, who took the Pacers to the NBA Finals last spring before they fell to
the Oklahoma City Thunder in a Game 7 that still has a pronounced effect on the
team. That was the game where point guard Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles,
an injury that means he won't play this season. The Pacers went from one win
shy of a world title to being a team in the throes of a reloading season, just
like that.
The lineup this season is very different. Carlisle isn't. He evolves, sure, but
he doesn't change. Styles of play come and go, but an insistence on playing the
right way is a constant.
"I can't say enough about him and the respect I have for him," Thunder coach
Mark Daigneault said during those finals last season. "I think the whole is
better than the sum of the parts. Almost consistently across every year he's
ever coached, the team is better than their sum. I think that's a reflection of
him. His teams play a clear identity, stay in character through all the ups and
downs."
This era of NBA basketball could basically be called the 3-point era, with
teams shooting more and more of them each year. The Houston Rockets under Mike
D'Antoni shot a billion of them and the Golden State Warriors with Stephen
Curry --- who has more 3s than anyone in NBA history --- are surely part of the
3-point craze across all levels of basketball as well.
But no NBA coach has seen his teams make more 3s than Carlisle, who was a
knockdown shooter himself as a kid in upstate New York, then at Maine, then at
Virginia, then the NBA. Carlisle's teams have made about 17,800 3s in his
career, roughly 1,000 3s more than Rivers has seen his teams make.
"Identity has changed over the years based on his teams, the league trends,"
Daigneault said. "But his teams are always in character. ... To be somebody
that has the experiences that he has, that's very impressive that he's been
able to evolve and be a trendsetter even as he's been one of the
longest-tenured people in the NBA."
The next coach to get to 1,000 after Carlisle gets there should be Miami's Erik
Spoelstra, who just crossed the 800-win threshold so he's clearly a few years
away. And after that, it might be a long while before someone else joins Club
1,000: Besides Spoelstra, the only current NBA coach with more than 500 wins is
Golden State's Steve Kerr.
Spoelstra, like most coaches, raves about Carlisle. Spoelstra and the Heat lost
the 2011 NBA Finals to Carlisle and the Dallas Mavericks. It's a defeat that
Spoelstra says made him better, and the Heat won titles in 2012 and 2013. Plus,
Carlisle has spent nearly two decades leading the National Basketball Coaches
Association --- fighting for his colleagues.
"It's a position really nobody wants," Spoelstra said. "But without him, the
benefits and the retirement package and all these things that really help
coaches ... he's been just a terrific leader in that role. And then in terms of
how many wins he has, it just shows you his longevity, his basketball acumen. I
have the utmost respect for him."
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