This Is Not What Rick Carlisle Needs

Rick Carlisle is ready for yet another new beginning. After getting canned from a Pistons team on the rise, and disappearing to Indiana for a while, he’s now taking over a Mavs team that’s still got title hopes. The consensus on Carlisle seems to be that he’s bright, but kind of a bully, and passionate about winning—and discipline. I know, I know, it’s just what the game needs, since players are spoiled and need to be flogged into shape. Which must be why his career has stalled since leaving Detroit.↵
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↵So with Carlisle hoping to clear his name with the Mavs, either by showing he’s matured or getting a team to see it his way, the last thing he needs is former players smearing him. Especially when its Sarunas Jasikevicius, Lithuanian legend, dominant force in the Olympics, total bust when Indiana lured him to the league. From The Indianapolis Star:↵↵⇥“Obviously, the (up-tempo) style of play Rick promised me was never there, the opportunities to play were never there, and the players who were supposed to be gone by the time I came were still around. Rick did a great false recruiting job on me, like college recruiting where they say, ‘If you come here, we promise you the world.’ “But Larry (Bird) being such an honorable man, and (then-president) Donnie (Walsh), too, they hire the coach and let him coach the way he wants. Rick’s a half-court man, no question.”↵↵

Ouch. In Carlisle’s defense, Sarunas couldn’t get off the bench in Golden State, either, which is like not being able to find a date in a polygmy cult. The Star and Carlisle both attribute these troubles to the guard lack of defense—double-irony, since when has that kept Nellie from giving a player minutes?
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↵Still, Carlisle is steamed: “It’s all pretty baseless ... I respect Sarunas’ game and his basketball IQ, and that’s why the only NBA success he had was with me as a coach.” And the last thing he needs is to roll into Dallas looking like a hypocritical tyrant who isn’t on his players’ side. Oh, and one who gets compared to college recruiters, and drives international stars back to Europe. This is like the ideal resume for the modern NBA coach.↵