Rick Carlisle closes in on coaching milestone after decades of positive impact

The Indiana Pacers head coach has seen it all and won 999 NBA regular season games.

Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle is hoping increased practice time and improved health will help his team get back on track in December following an ugly start. | David Reginek-Imagn Images

As action resumes following the NBA Cup quarterfinals, most coaches will be looking to see what some welcome practice time can do for their teams going forward. Given that the first few weeks have turned into extended preseason due to the 82-game marathon starting earlier and earlier, we’re really only coming to the end of the first month of these teams truly playing to their identity. 

Rick Carlisle knows this more than most, because he’s been around longer than most. In his second stint with the Indiana Pacers, the championship-winning coach is on the cusp of some personal history he’ll undoubtedly downplay. 

1,000 regular-season wins just means he’s old. How many games has he lost? 878! Wasn’t he supposed to get to this number early last month?

Full disclosure, Carlisle helped me immensely as a younger NBA reporter. In my stint as a national columnist at CBS, we’d have conversations, on and off the record, and even a few meals throughout the years. When I had my first daughter, he sent a care package and offered invaluable advice. 

When he was broadcasting and not coaching in 2007-08, he’d share insights on a less guarded level. When Carlisle won with the Mavericks in 2011, I was at every NBA Finals game. Even though I was based out of South Florida, I was genuinely thrilled to see him reach the pinnacle of his profession. 

Longevity, excellence leads Carlisle into elite coaching club

With his next victory, Carlisle will become just the 11th NBA coach to ever reach that milestone. Only one member of the club, Doc Rivers, remains active. He'll join coaching royalty in Gregg Popovich, Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry Sloan, Pat Riley, George Karl, Doc Rivers, Phil Jackson, Larry Brown and Rick Adelman.

Even though he's unlikely to personally relish in it, reaching 1,000 regular-season wins will mean something to everyone whose lives he’s affected positively. That includes his family, players, fellow coaches, support staff, media and on down the line. At 66 years old, Carlisle is now into his fifth decade on an NBA sideline after starting out as an assistant under legends Bill Fitch and Chuck Daly with the New Jersey Nets in 1989.

He took part in that excellent Celtics City documentary and has stories as a player from an era that helped the league become what it is today. His connection to Larry Bird was one of the reasons he originally came to Indiana in 1997. He was the Pacers’ coach for the “Malice in the Palace” on the heels of his first head job with the Detroit Pistons, where he helped Ben Wallace flourish and went worst-to-first in Year 1, transforming a 50-loss team into a 50-game winner.

Despite accomplishments, Carlisle won't rest on his laurels

To this day, that 2001-02 Coach of the Year honors is the only time he’s been honored even though he’s been the president of the National Basketball Coaches Association since ‘05. After reaching the NBA Finals with the Indiana Pacers in June, he signed a multi-year extension to see if he can finish the job of delivering an NBA title to Indianapolis for the first time.

It’s easy to forget the Pacers are one of the East’s beasts since they’ve started so slowly due to injuries to Tyrese Haliburton, Obi Toppin and Aaron Nesmith in addition to Myles Turner’s exit, but it would be foolish to write the team off this early. Although Indiana has dug itself a hole, Carlisle will likely have his team in contention for a play-in by the time the final few weeks come around.

After all, it’s always about the journey.

Here’s hoping Carlisle enjoys his 1,000th win, which could come as early as Friday in Philadelphia or at home on Sunday against the last-place Washington Wizards. It’s not his style to dwell on it, but privately, he should soak it in some. RC deserves his flowers, and as a fellow girl dad, I’ll always appreciate his kind attempts to coach me on my first journey into fatherhood. Good man.