Green Light with Chris Long - Pacers Head Coach Rick Carlisle Talks NBA Finals, Tyrese Haliburton & Indiana's Future

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle joins Chris Long to discuss the Pacers run to the NBA Finals, their battle with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Tyrese Haliburton's injury in game 7, Myles Turner heading to the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency and the future for Pacers basketball. (00:00) Intro (02:40) 2024-25 Pacers Season (09:47) Tyrese Haliburton & the Game 7 Injury (15:47) Coach Carlisle's NBA Coaching Legacy & Pacers Future (20:32) Conditioning & NBA Offseason Schedule (30:54) Myles Turner Signing With The Milwaukee Bucks (39:45) Reggie Miller's Impact on the Pacers & Pacers History (45:12) Overcoming An NBA Finals Loss Bryan Braman's GoFundeMe can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-bryan-bramans-healing-journey Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ Also, check out our paddling partners at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Appomattox River Company ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. Green Light's ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, where you can catch all the latest GL action: Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I've never received so many messages saying people were just inspired by our group of guys and how they competed and everything that they stood for. We've taken a situation that wasn't great and, you know, we've helped convert it into a great situation. He says, anybody ever tell you you look like Rick Carlisle? And I said, no, I've heard that. He goes, no, Rick Carlyle's taller than you. One time I heard somebody talking to them about, you know, don't be starting stuff or whatever. And instead of me, coach, in my discipline, we don't start things, we finish things. Everybody makes mistakes making.

Just look at your wife. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast presented by BetMGM. If you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use Bonus Code Greenlight, and you'll get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with, bet MGM. Here's how it works. Download the betmgm app and sign up using bonus code green light. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. If that bet loses, you will receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets. Just make sure you use bonus code green light when you sign up. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast. Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle is the guest on Greenlight today. He talks to Macon and

about the Pacer season, their run to the NBA finals, their battle against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Tyrese Halliburton, and his devastating injury in Game 7, the surprise news that Miles Turner signed with the Milwaukee Bucks, and the outlook for the Pacers for this upcoming season. Rick also talks about his impact on the game. He's had a long and illustrious career in the NBA, and Rick also talks about nearly being mistaken for Rick Carlis.

All right, this is a real treat. In a couple of ways. Number one, this is somebody that making claims to actually be friends with, which is pretty rare. And he's joining the show for a second time. Coach Rick Carlop. Coach, welcome to the show. What a year you guys had.

You broke my heart beating the Knicks, but if it was anybody, I'm glad it was you. And enjoyed watching team play. Welcome to the show, big guy. Well, it's good to be back. I hear a lot of the same sentence. from Nick fans around the country. They're everywhere.

But we had a great run. It was a lot of fun, you know, culminating in a game seven of the finals. And, you know, I just, it was an amazing experience. Did it feel good to shut up Ben Stiller and Timothy Shalomay? I actually met Ben Stiller a few years ago at Dirk Nowitzke's tennis event. and he's a great dude man he's really awesome and uh i didn't uh i didn't talk to him at all during the the series the only guy the only guy i talked to and there's stars everywhere you know when you're

playing in new york and um game one we were um we had sitting right next to our bench i mean literally in our huddles was Larry David and Susie Esmond, you know, from Curb Your Enthusiasm. And I, you know, I'm a big fan of that show. And I didn't say, didn't say anything to them. But I will confess the one person that I saw that was sitting two seats down from where I was sitting on the bench and I had to go shake hands was John McEnroe. And he's just, you know, you grow up watching tennis

I mean this guy this guy was was the dude man he was he was he was larger than life it was hard not to be a fan he got every he just got everyone

captivated with the sport with the rivalry rivalry with him in in Borg and all that stuff and he was he was super cool he was super cool he said a couple of very nice things

but he's the only guy I talked to but that's the only guy I talked to but that's That's the one guy I had to give mad respect to. So anyway, that was game two, and then, you know, it moved on from there. How real are home court advantages in the NBA coach? Because Madison Square Garden is, of course, considered the mecca, but it's a different type of venue than, say, your place in Indianapolis or the arena in OKC and Steve Ballmer has built. that big wall in in Los Angeles.

Specifically with that finals, I mean, is that something you can block out or were those home court advantage is real? Well, they are real. There's no doubt about that. I mean, you know, we played exceptionally well at home. There were some teams that lost some home games. You know, New York had some losses in a couple of their series. But I think there's a few factors.

at work here. I think, you know, Chris will probably tell you this too, you know, whether it's football or basketball, when you get a loud crowd, sometimes an elevated level of noise can actually enhance your ability to focus narrower on your team and, you know, whatever your process is. And that's something that we preached as a coaching staff to our guys was that, you know, we're going to use the noise and the distractions as a means to focus, you know, more concisely on what we need to do from a process standpoint. I mean, there's that and then there's, you know, officiating has gotten better. I mean, there's a lot of talk about officiating really in every sport, but NBA officiating has gotten better over the years. There's not,

there's not a heavy leaning toward the home team. You know, the officials in the NBA are under such scrutiny, you know, by the league office. There are all kinds of ways that we can inquire about calls, miscalls, things like that. And so you have that too. And then, you know, when you're in that environment, that hostile environment, you know, it's going to be hard and you just focus on whatever you're doing and you just attack. and you just keep coming and you just keep coming.

And so, you know, there's that element to it as well. So, you know, it's not impossible to win on the road in the playoffs. It's certainly not easy. It's a lot of work, but it can be done. Let's say I've got a big lead on the Indiana Pacers in the fourth quarter late in a game. What should I do offensively? Should I push the pace? Should I slow down?

I don't want you giving away your secrets on how you make these big comebacks. But what do you guys like to see? When are you like, hey, they're walking into our trap? Well, we got you right where we want you. We had a season that had that feature a lot of comeback wins. We ended up winning 50 games. I mean, the last game of the season we're playing in Cleveland. It appears to be a throwaway game.

Cleveland's not playing anybody. We play our guys. We play a lot of our guys, but not all of them, like half the game or, you know, like a third of the game. Then we shut them down because we know we're going to the playoffs. Both teams have their positions locked up. And so, you know, we get into a thing. We get down 19 or 20 in that game. And then in the last quarter and a half, we have three two-way guys. And, and, you know, we get down 19 or 20 in that game. And then in the last quarter and a half, we have three two-way guys. And, a couple of guys that didn't play much for us, who played like 18 minutes in a row, we come back, tied the game, going to overtime, then going to a second overtime, and win the game in two overtime. And so, you know, that gets us to 50 wins. And, you know, when you get to 50,

it's kind of a big deal in the NBA and stuff like that. So that was another comeback. And we had a bunch of them during the year. And so it was, It was an epic year for being able to pull off some seemingly pretty miraculous stuff and making it look commonplace, and it is not commonplace. You know, you have to have a special team. You've got to have a team that is going to grind the whole way.

They ain't going to quit. You've got to have a guy like Halliburton that wants the ball and wants the big shot. A guy like Siakum, that's the same, you know. So, you know, a lot of things, a lot of things went our way. there was a high level of character and fortitude on our team that allowed it to happen. Talk to us about Tyrese going down in that game seven. He comes out on fire. It seems like you guys have all the momentum, all the pressures on the home team.

It looks like it's going to go well. And then you go from that to just what I imagine is utter devastation. and both teams are shocked. The building seems shocked. You guys are up by one at halftime. But what's going through your mind when you're standing over him on the court in that moment and now two weeks or so removed?

What is his mentality moving forward? Well, you guys have probably seen some of his comments. And I don't know that he's been on television interviews yet, but it's all very upbeat. I mean, this guy is, he's just one in, I don't know how many, you know. In the NFL, Chris, you know, I mean, I don't know. Every once in a while you get, you find a guy. You probably had a lot of these qualities yourself where regardless of the difficulty of the situation,

there was going to be, there was going to be a positivity. There was going to be an upbeat projection of the, you know, I'm going to get through this. you know, and it's going to be okay. And he's just one of those, he's just one of those guys. Now, in that moment, you know, it's so difficult. I mean, you guys can, you guys can imagine, you know, what it might be like. You know, that series was, you know, that's a tough, that's a tough series. And you got to give Oklahoma a lot of credit.

I mean, they were favored in every game of that series. And that's, that's real pressure. you know, is when you are the favorite team in every game. And, you know, we were just, we were just attacking, attacking, you know, we were just trying to hang in, hang in and give ourselves a chance at the end. And we had not had a great offensive game in that series, partially because they're so good on D. But in game seven, you know, we came out, Tyrese at three-threes in the first three or four minutes.

They called the first time out. And, you know, we had them on their heels. And that was the start that we needed. And then, you know, three or four minutes later, the injury happened and certainly a lot changed. But our guys continue to battle the same way. The dynamics of the game changed. That's pretty obvious.

But, you know, Nimhard hit a three toward the end of the half to give us a one-point lead going into halftime. And then it's 24 minutes, you know. And so, you know, we came out and they hit us with a, with. with a tough third quarter, got some separation, and we were just unable to get back into it at the level that we needed to. So, you know, very disappointing.

I mean, I think that's obvious. But, you know, it's just, I don't know, you define success, you know, you search over and over for ways to define what real success is and it's not always winning the championship. You know, sometimes it's just, you just compete at the best possible level you can and and the chips fall where they may. So very proud of our organization, our team, and disappointed for sure, but, you know,

we're going to move forward. Take me inside that huddle when you guys are trying to gather yourselves after a moment like that where, you know, possibly your best player is down with an Achilles. And it seems to people that play the game and watch sports, you kind of know what it is as soon as it happens. That's got to feel tough to rally guys to snap back into reality. We've seen it in the NFL in a lot of situations. If you watch the NFL, I think back to that tank Dell injury last year where it's gruesome in the end zone and there's stoppage and guys are, there's people crying, it's hard to get back on the field. how hard was it to rally guys to just take the court again and snap back into reality?

Yeah. Guys, you're asking some tough questions. You know, it's, you know, there was, there was the gathering around him on the floor. And then we had to get back to the huddle. And, you know, we had won a couple of games during the year without Tyrese. And so, look, the guys, the guys, had a belief, you know, it's, you know, we, we, we understood the elements, you know, that you need to have to win in that situation, whether you have your best player or one of your best players

or you don't. I mean, it's still a game of execution. I mean, if you, if you equate it to football, it's, you know, it's, it's execution, it's, um, ball security, it's, you know, uh, special teams and you give yourself a chance. And so, you know, the third quarter was our undoing in that game. But, you know, the third quarter started and we had a different starting lineup out there. And really, one, I don't know if we even had used the entire year. Mathuron at two, knee-smith at three, Nemhart at one. I don't, I'm not sure if we use that lineup once during the regular season.

Certainly, I don't think we used it. as a starting lineup. So, you know, there are just some elements that come on you fast. You adjust as best you can, and you just got to keep moving. Coach, Chris will tell you that a Chiron is a caption on the lower third of a TV screen. Shows you, Pacer's logo, your name, and then says, oldest coach to coach a game in the NBA finals, which is, is surprising because you're not such an old guy.

Really? Yeah. One, did that screen grab get to you because I can send it to you if it didn't? And two, I guess the coach speak answer is, well, I've been doing it a long time and the teams are successful, so that's good. But when do you, if ever, start to think about legacy? Because you coach a few more years, you're passing guys like Phil. Jackson, Larry Brown on all-time wins.

You're already top 10 knocking on the door of top 10 all-time playoff wins. And now there's another trip to the finals on the resume. And you're consistently running circles around teams with superior talent, in my opinion. You should be a surefire Hall of Famer. Does that sort of stuff matter to you? When I heard the thing about oldest coach Everton coach in the final, The first thought I had was, you know, how did Popovich skate out of this? You know what I mean?

And, you know, it's, it all, it all comes quickly, you know, like, Chris, I'll bet in your, in your NFL career, we should play 10, 12 years? 11, yeah, 11. 11 years. So I bet when you got to year seven or eight, it was like, hi, wow, this is happening fast, you know? It's just, so, you know, next year will be my 24. fourth year as an NBA head coach. And, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's almost, it's coming up on a quarter century. But when you do something you love, when you, when you're challenged every

day, when you have the good fortune to work with people that are people that, people that stimulate you to learn every day and that you can learn from on a day to day week to week basis. I mean, it flies by. So, you know, the legacy stuff, one thing that, one thing that I've learned along the way is that is not to focus on that. It's just to keep learning, trying to keep growing, trying to keep great coaching staffs together, trying to, trying to continue to help players get better and be, you know, just lead as best I can. And so, you know, as I've continued to make that effort, you know, times of flying, you know, been fortunate here in Indiana. You know, when I came, I thought the team was pretty good. And then it turned out it wasn't. And there were,

there was a guy on the team, T.J. Warren, who was going to be one of our key players who never got on the court because of a foot injury. And then there was one free agent that we didn't, we're unable to resign. And so it turned into a situation that needed to be revamped in a big way. And the trade subonus for Halliburton and healed, you know, really, really restarted things. then we started building around those guys and guys like kneesmith and some good drafts and miles Turner and t j mcconnell fit in and then you know the the acquisition of siakum last year really elevated us to a different level and so you know we've taken a situation that wasn't great and you know we've helped

convert it into a great situation and we have some injury stuff to overcome you know we lost Miles Turner to free agency, but we're going to get the wheels on the wagon there. We just traded for Jay Huff, another UVA guy who can really shoot it, and he's going to be part of a center-by-committee deal, which I've done before, and all this is doable. And so next year, without Tyrese gives Nemhart a chance to play more of his pure position at point. we develop somebody else at the two position and then a year from now

when Tyrese is coming back into the fold, the hope is that we can go on another run. In the NBA, you know, you talk about these deep runs that extend your season and there's a lot of talk about load management and this, that, and the third, and you guys are stacking another bunch of games on top of that. And in the NFL, teams always amazed me

like the Patriots in the Tom Brady era where their season has, in February every year. So they've got a month more of football than anybody else. How hard is it when you've gone through this run, injury is notwithstanding to get people's legs back? Do you have to adjust the offseason schedule? How do guys get their feet back under them with a lot less time to do so? Yeah, that's a great question. And, you know, last year we got to the conference finals. So, So I think our season was over. I think it was May 28th or something like that.

And then, you know, the conference finals this year was in every other day thing. So it was seven games and 13 days. And so, you know, we won game one in New York and Tyrese takes the shot. It hits the back of the rim. It bounces way up in the air. It comes back down. And after the game, I remember talking about, look, it's day. it's day one of 13.

This is a 13-day series. The thing is, you get into the finals, and the finals is an 18-day series because there's two days between every game except I think it was 3 and 4, which was at our place. And so it is long and it is run out. Now, the good thing about it is

with plenty of time between games, you know, you don't get the same kind of fatigue factor. You know, recovery is more, is easier, things like that. But you have the mental grind and it is the finals and it's an elevated station, all that. So there's plenty going on there. But yes, you know, the offseason is different. And we talk to our team about it at the end of the year. Schedules are going to be different. That 18 days in the finals, I mean, that's the better part of a month that you're into the summer. And so it's the right, it's the correct amount of rest.

And then you've got to get ramped up again. And it's not like maybe it was in the 70s and 80s in the NBA where training camp was when you, where you came in to get in shape. Like, you've got to be in shape when you get to camp. I mean, you've got to be in shape. And otherwise, you're going to be behind the curve. And that's where injuries really can happen in a more frequent basis. So, yeah, I mean, it's that. Last couple of years, we've been doing the beep test.

I don't know if you've ever done the beep test. We might have a different name for it. What is it? Is it like a catapult type thing? It's a thing where somebody has it on a phone. It's a thing that you, You go half court and back, and every time there's a beep, you've got to start another one. And then there's a beep, and then the beeps become more frequent.

It's not, if you're in shape, it's not that hard. It's not like you're sprinting, spring, sprinting, but it is an endurance thing. And it tests your base, you know, in terms of your conditioning as an athlete. And so, look, we play fast. The catapult GPS data will tell you that our team runs faster and covers more ground than any team in the league. And we're proud of that. And it's one of the reasons we've been able to separate from some teams and to win and to wear some teams down in the playoffs. But the summer has got to be meticulously planned, especially for our veteran players, because what you don't want is the

notion that as you come into training camp that guys, you know, need extra days of rest because the season was so long, you know, you just don't, I don't think that that works. Then you get into a thing where certain guys get treated a certain way and not, you know, and so you just don't, you want to avoid that if you can. And so certainly you structure practices so they're, they're optimal for everybody. Yeah. But, you know, it's, it is, it is a, it is a different thing. And the mindset coming back has got to be that, hey, we're ready to, we're ready to go to work again.

You know, we've gotten the amount of rest we need. We've built it back up and here we go. Hey, Mike, I got a quick one here. The catapult, you mentioned the catapult scores. I used to refuse to wear my catapult when I was older because I didn't want them to see how slow I was. You know, make it an eye test thing. You know, coach, you got to pass your own judgment on that one.

Who are your fastest guys? Or who are the most shocking speed guys on your team? Like maybe a big man that could really pick them up and put them down. You didn't realize it until you threw the catapult on them. Yeah, you know, truthfully, I don't look that much at the individual data on that. I would say, I would say that, of, our big guys, Isaiah Jackson. Now, he was one of the guys that was injured

last year. He's going to be coming back. It's one of the best athletes I've ever seen in any sport. Really? Yeah, he his stride, his ability to elevate. I mean, he is he's just, it's otherworldly and his ability to cover ground. I mean, I don't even

know what would be like a, it would be like a six foot 10 defensive back, you know? Yeah. That can move like one those guys. And so I would think, I would think he's won. And we have a lot of our perimeter guys. I mean, like, interestingly, the big guys, they run from basket to basket. You know,

a lot of the time, the point guards run from top of the key to top of the key. And the wings run from, you know, a lot of times corner to corner. And so, you know, the amount of, In terms of the amount of ground that's covered, it can vary by position a little bit, too. This guy, James Johnson, have you ever had to see him deal with a problem? If you know what I mean? We don't have problems because we haven't sitting over there. How scary could he potentially be? He doesn't seem like a scary guy because he doesn't seem.

You know, when you're a big ass kicking guy, you're either a, hey, because you have a, hammer, everything's a nail, or you understand and you don't look for conflict. He seems like the latter, but how scary could he be? Yeah, we got to be careful. I don't know where, I don't know where the show goes out to exactly. But he's undefeated, he's an undefeated and mixed martial arts guy. I think he's been in eight or ten matches, something like that. You know, one, one time, I heard somebody talking to him about, you know, don't be, don't be starting stuff or whatever. And he said to me, coach, in my discipline, we don't start things. We finish things. And so, you know, that's kind of like all I really needed to hear if I needed to hear anything.

Yeah. About it, you know, so anyway, he's, he's a special guy. You know, I had him in Dallas. We traded for him. And actually, we signed him as a free agent. He was really good for us. It was the height of COVID. It was all that. He was still a good player.

And he had a real charismatic leadership presence in the locker room. Then I came to Indiana. And he was still playing somewhere. I forget where he was. But as we were going into our second year in Indiana, I had said to Kevin Pritchard and Chad Buchanan, and their president and Joe Mandra, that, you know, if we're looking for a great locker room guy to help this team grow,

I said, you may not believe this, but James Johnson's one of the best guys I've seen. And James had been in a lot of different places, have been become kind of a high-level journeyman player, and they were like, really? And so, anyway, we ended up bringing him in. he was a big reason that in our second year in Indiana,

we were like five games over 500 to start, you know, at the beginning of January. And then we had a game in New York, of all places, where all of a sudden Miles Turner couldn't play because his back was tweaked. Tyrese got hurt in the game, fell down, and got a UCL injury of all things. Yeah.

Which is the Tommy John, you know, It wasn't a full chair of that, but it was a similar thing. And we had one or two other guys that all of a sudden couldn't go at the beginning of the game. And believe it or not, James Johnson was our starting center. And so we went two and nine in our next 11 games and fell out of it. And we're in the lottery again. And then the following year was the year we got to the conference finals, which was last year. And then this year was the year that we got to the finals.

So James has been a big part. part of, you know, the growth of our team. And he's just, it gives us, he gives us a lot of, a lot of, a lot of substance and a lot of confidence as a locker room leader. Does it matter that Miles went to Milwaukee in terms of NBA rivalries? Is that rivalry real, whether it's with your players, their players, your fan base? I think there are a lot of of basketball arguments to be made that Miles may be the best version of himself with a guy like Tyrese around. So that's not exactly the question. But does it matter that he went to the bucks as opposed to somewhere in the West where he don't see him as much? I mean, we've played Milwaukee

20 times in two seasons. We played them, I think, 11 times last year, including the in-season tournament. And then this year, we played them nine or 10. It was 20 or 21. I forget what it was because they're in the division. So that's four times. And then you play them in the playoffs.

You know, that's another five or six or seven times, whatever it is. And so it was a lot. Look, losing Miles Turner is a significant loss for our team. I mean, the guy's been a terrific player. He had a great season. And look, we were talking to them, or talking to them, meaning his agent, about him returning.

And, you know, really kind of out of nowhere, Milwaukee decided to wave Damien Lillard and stretch his. contract stretches money out over whatever number of years you can do it by by rule and then they created space to sign miles and so i think i think what probably happened um and this is part of negotiation in any sport um you know a team will say hey look um we have this offer it's this much over this many years. But if we make this offer, we need to know that you're going to take it and not shop it. And so I believe that that's what probably happened with Milwaukee.

It was a number. It was a certain number of years. And they just jumped at it. And there was never a chance to counter. And so those things happen. happen. And when they do, you just got to keep going. I had a nice conversation with Miles the day after and wished him the very, very best special relationship that I developed with him over four years. I mean, he played the best he's ever played. One of the reasons was he got to

play his natural position full time. And so that was great for him. So look, it allowed him to get $107 million over four years. That's great for him. Wish him the best. You know, we'll see them four times during the year. And, you know, I got a nice message from Doc Rivers after the playoffs. And Doc's a longtime friend. And this is before the Miles thing happened. I just said, Doc, I said, we'll see in the playoffs next year. I mean, we play these guys every year. You know, we both kind of did the LOL thing, you know, on text. Miles will be fine there. He's a great guy to pair with Janus.

And, you know, things change rapidly. It's only because we're here talking about the bucks just popped in my head. I could not figure out for the life of me what was going on with Janus wanting the basketball when he scored 64 points. What was going on there? Like, to a layman, what was happening with the basketball?

What was the miscommunication? I'll tell you what, you guys are, you guys are shiard hitting shit. You know that? Yeah, it's 10 in the morning. We decided to just fucking hit you with it right out of the gate. That was the height of kind of, that was last year, you know, as things were building between the two teams. Because we had some heated games and we had the in-season game and all that stuff. And, you know, he had 64 points.

And then we had a guy. Oscar Sheebway from Kentucky, who was on a two-way contract that scored his first NBA points of his career in that game. So we were trying to just get the game ball or get the, there's always a secondary game ball. We didn't care which ball. It's just a symbolic thing, you know. And then it's just, it's just, you know, things got kind of heated. and I really don't want to go into it any more than that other than to say that I think we had,

I don't ever think we had the real game ball. And I'm pretty sure that, actually I'm certain because the camera feed showed that they had had the original game ball all along. But look, it was, it made for compelling stuff, you know, for the league. I mean, on some level, it fed the kind of the building rivalry. If you want to say there's a rivalry, I'm not big into talking about that stuff because

those things happen organically over time. And I'm not into labels and all that kind of crap. You know, it just doesn't matter. You got to get out on the floor. You got to try to win a game, you know, in the series. And that's kind of it. So, coach, I got a label for you. Pacers play hard-nosed basketball.

ball. You guys press, you guys run. We've talked about that. How long does it take to get that out of guys who aren't used to it? You know, it seemed like y'all, there was an uptick in that sort of thing, that full court defense as the season went on. Like, how do you get guys to buy into that in today's NBA? And is it more like self-selective, like the people that you're selecting fit the culture, or is there a process where you can, you know, kind of onboard these guys and bring them up to speed. Well, it starts with, it starts with competitors and who are great people. So we, you know, luckily we had a lot of those kind of guys on our team. We identified really a couple years ago that, you know, if we're going to, if we're going to have, if we're going to play at the pace that

we want to and is best for us in the playoffs, it's going to require that we do something to generate that. And so what that, we're going to do. what that became was full core pressure. And so you got guys like Nemhard, who's a natural ass kicker, you know, of a competitor, you know, Neesmith, McConnell, guys like that. You know, Tyrese has become one of those guys. You know, Turner, Siak. I mean, these guys were willing to do that.

And they saw that this was our means for success. our guys off the bench, same way. You know, Obie Toppin picking up full court. You know, Matherin, you know, Ben Shepard, you know, all these guys. And so Isaiah Jackson, who I mentioned before, you know, we have athletes that are hard-charging guys. And so it was, you know, this became a necessity for us. And so we did it last year, and then we needed to do it again this year. And it's become part of our DNA, and now we draft to it.

And in free agency, you know, we make sure that the guys that we're talking to are hard-charging competitors. Otherwise, you know, we can't have guys that aren't willing to, you know, go all out, pick up full. all that, and like even running on offense. I mean, it sounds good. Like every NBA player will tell you, yeah, I want to run. Well, until you realize the commitment that's involved. And so it takes special people. But, you know, it started with the character of guys that we had,

and then we kind of built it up from there as a means to whatever success we were going to have. I mean, Reggie Miller being there for these games. Is that a cool wrinkle for you guys to walk back into the locker room or through the hallway and be able to see him after a game? You know, after win or after a loss, I saw him kind of embracing some of the guys on the team. There's not really an NFL comp for that. You know, when Brady's up in the booth doing a Patriots game, he's not down in the tunnel, is a little bit more removed kind of dynamic.

Was it cool to have Reggie? along for the ride there. Yeah, it was, I mean, it was just tremendous. I mean, you know, Reggie was there with his son. My daughter was at game seven. You know, she's 21. She'll be a third year at UVA. She was at game seven.

She was at game six as well. And, you know, these moments are hard. to describe. You know, I'll tell you guys this. This is, and I've, and I shared this on my radio show after the season was over, but you know, you think about, you try to think about the right thing to say before going out for game seven on the road. And somebody had texted me a guy who was a writer in Indianapolis for many years.

He'd covered the team for, A pretty significant amount of time. His name's Mark Montief. And he texted me that the three ABA championships that the Pacers won, it was 70, 72, and 73. 70, 1970, it was against the Los Angeles Stars in L.A. 72 was against the New York Nets in New York. and 73 was against the Kentucky colonels at Kentucky. In 73, it was a game seven. The other two were game sixes. And Mark texted me, he said, in every one of those games,

Slick Leonard, who was the greatest coach in Pacer's history, 529 wins, said the same thing to his team before they went out. And so we had found something, something had shown up on Instagram, which was like a minute and 45 second kind of history of the Pacers. At one point they had to have a telethon to save the franchise. The franchise was about to fold. Nancy Leonard, who was Slick Leonard's wife was the general manager at the time. She got it going. It went through that.

after game six against New York this year, Miles Turner embraced Nancy Leonard, who's 93 years old. You know, all this. So we showed that to give these guys a sense of history and what they were playing for. And then as we got together in the locker room and got the players ready to go out,

I said to them, I said, I said three times in the history of this franchise, they won championships in the ABA, three times they did. did it on the road. All three times, Slick Leonard, the greatest coach in Pacers history, said the same thing to those guys, which I'm going to say to you guys right now, walk out there like you own the damn place. And our guys went out there and we had the best start to a game you could possibly imagine. It appeared we were headed for our best offensive game

where offense was hard to come by against those guys. And then, you know, it was a lot of You know, they called the first time out and our guys were juiced and they were a little shook and their building was a little shook too. And then three or four minutes later, the injury happened. You know, so that's sports. You know, that's sports. But, you know, this is funny. I was in Charlottesville three days ago. You'll love this story.

I was at a fast food restaurant. I'm over by the drink machine. Okay. There was a guy in there. He says, anybody ever tell you you look like Rick Carlisle? And I said, well, I said, I've heard that. He goes, no, Rick Carlisle's taller than you. I said, yeah, yeah, he's probably, probably taller.

And he goes, he goes, yeah, he goes, I bet Rick Carlisle doing good right now. I said, well, what do you, did you follow the Pacers? He goes, yeah, they won the championship. So like, like I've gotten, I've never received so many messages saying about how people were just inspired by our group of guys and how they competed and everything that they stood for, you know. And so, you know, one guy thinks we won the championship, you know, I mean, you know, you think about the whole thing. and, you know, even though it wasn't the ultimate win, it was a win. No, it really did feel like you guys were so tight, and, you know, I'm sure a lot of it is the culture you set,

but also things that you ask them to do. When you ask guys to do things that are extra and that are non-standard, you're going to get a non-standard bond between guys on the team. And you could really feel that. You could feel that watching your team, and the thing I was wondering is like, hey you've lost as a player right you've you've lost an NBA finals of play you won them and you've lost them and I can remember getting ready for the Super Bowl the very first time I ever played in a Super Bowl and my buddy Rob Nickovish told me hey this is going to be one of the best days of your life

but if we lose you're going to wish you're going to wish you never played in the game you're going to wish you went oh and 16 and I don't get the sense that that it's that feeling when you walk back into a locker room with that group of guys, can you, without violating that space, give me an idea of what it feels like when, and you know what I mean, but after a loss, it's like finally you get back to the locker room and guys let it go.

You know, and maybe that doesn't happen immediately. Maybe it's the plane ride home. What's that grieving process like for that team? Well, first of all, I mean, you got to picture this. Our guys are walking back to the locker. room and Tyrese Halliburton is in a boot on crutches in the hallway greeting them. So that's that's one thing. And the first thing I did was I yelled for my president, Kevin Pritcher.

I said, Kevin, are we going to have exit meetings tomorrow? Because this doesn't feed. It goes, no. We got a couple free agents. I'll talk to them. but we, this is, we, we can't put our guys through that. And so we agreed, we agreed on that. And so, you know, look, getting into this and you, you know, you take, you take your experiences of the past and you try to, you try to prepare your guys for what's happening. And one of the things I, I told them before that series, the final series ever started is,

I said, you get to the NBA finals, there's no such thing as losing and having a feel-good year. It's just the stakes are raised so high. You're on this elevated stage. I said, this will be the sixth time I've been to the finals. And the feeling, the feeling of losing is, is, it's just never going to be a good thing, you know. And so one of the things headed into it is, guys, we're going to some, this is the point of no return. We are going for this. Here's our process.

Here are the simple things we're going to focus on. You know, we thought, we thought Oklahoma was the best team. But they hadn't been in a lot of close games the entire year. I mean, their point differential was historically high. I mean, so our thing was, let's get these guys in some close games and put some pressure on them, you know? And so, you know, we were able to do that and we won a couple games, you know, by some margins, you know. So anyway, that was the whole thing. But, you know, you walk back and it's over.

And there are no more games. You've played the last game. The last game was scheduled on June 22nd. And it was day 18 of the entire thing, you know. And before the game, there had been this thing leaked where Oklahoma had their parade buses already painted. These are buses with open tops. Somebody had leaked that before game seven. And so, you know, I mentioned it at my pregame press conference just because, you know,

I mean, you're looking for, you're looking for anything, you know. And at that point in time, being absolutely truthful, there's no, there's no sin in that, you know. So there was, there was so much going on, you know, and I told you guys about the leading up to the beginning of the game, the beginning of the game, all that stuff. And then, but as you, as you are kind of downloading at the end, I mean, you know, we're about to get on a plane back to eat. indie on, you know, it's an hour and 40 minute plane ride. Just think, I mean, if Portland had been

playing Miami in the finals, that would have been like a six and a half hour plane ride. We're taking like an hour and a half plane ride. It was one of the friendly, it was a lot easier to get to Oklahoma City and play than it was to get to New York. Because New York, you got to go through a lot to get into the place, the traffic, all that, and then to get to the garden. I mean, the paycom center is right across the street from the Omni Hotel, which is a brand of hotel. I mean, this is the best physical setup you're ever going to get for finals on the road. So anyway, it was all in all, sum it all up. It was an amazing experience, very disappointing, certainly on the one hand, but very proud on the other.

And is there any truth to the rumor that you're now resigning, legendary NBA career to become general manager of the University of Virginia men's basketball program. I heard that this morning, actually. Well, there's no truth to that, but I am. A boy can dream. This is my 20th year as president of the NBA Coaches Association. In 2005, I was elected president at a meeting that I wasn't even at, and I'm still a little pissed at some people from 2005 about that.

But that's been an amazing run. But this is my 10th term. And I've informed everyone that this will be my last. And so we'll have a new president on January 1st of 26th. But that's the only thing I'm resigning. How would the transfer of power be? Very easy. Okay.

Good. The next president will want to hear that. It's more, I think the terminology is transfer of responsibility. Responsibility. I wouldn't call it power. Yeah, I hear that. Well, you got plenty of them, man.

We just so appreciative of the time you gave us. And what a year. I mean, seriously, I mean, you already know nothing to hang your head about. But as a football player watching a basketball series, I had a lot of respect for your group, man. It was a lot of fun to watch. Well, appreciate being on with you guys. I've been to a few of UVA.

basketball practices. I'm very, very optimistic about the kind of year that they're going to have. We have a lot of talent. I love Ryan Odom. I love his staff. I've learned a lot watching them.

So I just want to give a shout out there and, you know, make sure that Wahoo Nation is excited. So we'll look forward to that. Yes, sir. Last one, how's Macon's golf game improving? Or stuck in the mud? I haven't.

I haven't played with him this year. Not this year. He's trying to convince me to buck the rules over there and get a golf cart with a black top instead of a tan top. That's the only thing I care about. He's recalcitrant by nature. That's a good word. So I'm giving it consideration, but we'll have to see.

He does have an uncooperative attitude towards authority or discipline. That's ridiculous. That's a ridiculous. characterization. Coach said maybe we'll get a meal or play some golf. I ignored the golf part because it's not going so hot at the moment. But we're going to get in the lab. Okay.

Because when coach hangs it up in a decade, I'll have my game ready to go. We got to get you with Bob Rottella. He's just down the road. You're right. Bob Rottella would be good. That's the missing piece. Can he help people that do podcasts too? That would help.

I would think so. Okay, good. I would think so. Coach Carlisle, I appreciate the time, man. Enjoy the off-season. All right, you guys be well. Take care.