Rick Carlisle Extends Contract with Pacers
The Indiana Pacers coach, Rick Carlisle, has signed a multi-year contract extension with the franchise. The announcement comes after leading the team to its first NBA Finals appearance in a quarter of a century. Carlisle, who coached the Pacers for the first time from 2003 to 2007 and was an assistant under Larry Bird when Indiana reached the Finals in 2000, returned to the franchise in 2021 after a successful 13-year stint with the Dallas Mavericks, which included winning the NBA title in 2011.Following the retirement of Gregg Popovich as coach of the San Antonio Spurs and the firing of Tom Thibodeau by the New York Knicks, after a loss to Carlisle and the Pacers in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals, Carlisle, 65 years old, is now the oldest active head coach in the NBA. Carlisle has a regular season record of 993-860 and will become the eleventh coach in NBA history to reach 1,000 wins at the start of next season. He is second, after Milwaukee’s Doc Rivers, among active coaches in regular season wins. Carlisle is also tenth all-time with 86 postseason wins, behind Rivers, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, and Golden State’s Steve Kerr among active coaches. In his first season, Indiana traded Domantas Sabonis to the Sacramento Kings for Tyrese Haliburton, setting the stage for the Pacers to return to the playoffs and then reach the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024, going that far for the first time in a decade. The Pacers then defeated the Milwaukee Bucks, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Knicks last season to reach the league finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, where Indiana fell in seven games, and lost Haliburton for next season due to a ruptured Achilles tendon. Carlisle, who was a member of the 1986 champion Boston Celtics as part of a five-year NBA career that included stops with the Knicks and the New Jersey Nets, is also the president of the National Basketball Coaches Association.Since his return to the Pacers in 2021, Coach Carlisle has been instrumental to our success, including leading us to consecutive appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals and our first appearance in the NBA Finals in 25 years. Beyond his coaching achievements that place him among the best in NBA history, Coach Carlisle continues to embrace our community and give back to the state of Indiana with his Drive and Dish program. We are delighted that he will continue to lead our team and represent our organization in the future.
Kevin Pritchard, Pacers President of Basketball Operations
