FORT WORTH, Texas — The following is not an intended dig, shot or knock of a man who was forced to retire from a job he loved because of an unfortunate illness that finally stopped him from working.

Former San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is a Hall of Fame coach who maximized the considerable power, and talent, he was blessed to possess and coach for nearly 30 years. When it comes to coaching the game, and assembling a group of parts into a winner, he’s also not Rick Carlisle’s equal.

The former head coach of the Dallas Mavericks has the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals with a lineup that should not be in a championship series. The Pacers may not defeat the superior Oklahoma City Thunder to win their first ever title, but that this is a series at all is another testament to Carlisle.

NBA coaches now are mostly interchangeable baby sitters, minute monitors and ego strokers. Carlisle is the last of a breed: An NBA coach who is a weapon in a game.

Carlisle’s exit from Dallas was a necessity

Carlisle’s current success with the Pacers does not mean the Mavericks made a mistake by allowing him to leave after the 2021 season. That entire era of the Mavericks had run its course, and the major parties involved needed to leave.

Rick’s personality is not for everyone. There are porcupines who may shy away from Carlisle.

In his long tenure with the Mavericks, which lasted from 2008 to 2021, he could be wonderfully magnanimous, and in the next sentence shoot a verbal dagger for no reason. If you were above him, he was a gold medalist in “managing up,” a corporate term that has replaced brown nosing.

According to people who cover the Pacers in Indianapolis now, he can still be a tad prickly but has mellowed considerably after returning to Indiana for a second run with the team. He’s 65, and how his tenure ended with the Mavericks was humbling.

Since winning the NBA Finals in 2011, with one of the oldest rosters in the NBA, the team was never successfully re-tooled to make a run around an aging Dirk Nowitzki. Since winning that championship under Carlisle, the Mavs made it to the playoffs six times and never advanced beyond the first round.

Drafting Luka Doncic to be Dirk’s replacement was a success, but the teams that were eliminated by the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs, in 2020 and 2021, were simply not good enough.

After winning the title, the rosters Carlisle were handed were at, at best, second tier.

In 2014, the Mavs were the eighth seed and pushed the top-seeded Spurs to a Game 7 in the first round. The Spurs would lose only four more games in those playoffs en route to their last title with a core that featured future Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and an in-his-prime Kawhi Leonard.

What separates Rick Carlisle from the rest

In any coaching debate, Popovich’s five NBA titles are a hard fact to ignore. Carlisle has one.

Popovich also was blessed to have on his teams David Robinson, Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and Leonard. Without Robinson, and soon after Duncan, approving of his methods, the coach would have been fired. He knows it.

Pop also had an ownership group that allowed him to have powers that exceed the normal NBA head coach.

When that historic cast of internationally renowned players retired, and Leonard whined out of San Antonio, Pop could never get it back. Not even when the Spurs selected Victor Wembanyama No. 1, in 2023. Pop’s last winning season, and playoff appearance, was in 2018-19. The Spurs record since then is 177-294.

Much like with Phil Jackson, Pop’s legacy is a great coach who coached great teams. When the players weren’t great, neither was he.

Carlisle is the closest man these days to former long time college and pro coach Larry Brown: Give him a roster, and one or two offseasons, and Rick will make it competitive. He did it in Detroit, with Indiana in his first run with that franchise, with the Mavericks, and now again in Indiana.

Carlisle’s high point was coaching Dirk and the Mavericks to that title, one of the biggest upset playoff runs ever. The Mavs had to go through the Kobe Bryant Lakers; a Thunder team that featured Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook; the Miami Heat, which had Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James.

Carlisle recognizing the potential mismatch he had in backup point guard J.J. Barea, and inserting him into the starting lineup in the Finals, is one of those rare coaching decisions that can impact a seven-game series.

Throughout Carlisle’s career he has coached a variety of different looking rosters, and styles, to success. In his tenure in Detroit and Indiana, the first time, his teams were built around defense. That was a brutal era of NBA basketball where the winning final score sometimes didn’t hit 80.

As the game, and officiating evolved, so did Carlisle. His teams flowed differently. He currently he has one of the better offensive teams in the league that thrives on transition, running, and 3-pointers.

He may not have a team talented enough to defeat the Thunder in these NBA Finals, but this roster is not in this series without Rick Carlisle.

Without more titles, he will never be recognized as the best coach in the NBA, but he is.

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