Pooh
08-27-2003, 10:54 PM
By Conrad Brunner - Pacers.com
Aug. 27, 2003
Isiah Thomas is out as the Pacers’ head coach, and it appears Rick Carlisle may well be in.
Thomas was fired Wednesday and Carlisle was identified as the top candidate by Larry Bird, President of Basketball Operations.
“I talked to Rick last night just to see if he had any interest in this job and obviously he said it’d be a great opportunity for him and he’d like to sit down and talk to us about it,” Bird said. “Probably today or tomorrow we’ll talk to Rick – probably today. Obviously he’s my first choice.”
Neither franchise CEO and President Donnie Walsh nor Bird got into details about the reasons for Thomas’ dismissal, referring generally to problems with team chemistry, communication between Thomas and Bird, and concern that the slide that marked the end of the 2002-03 season would carry over into this coming season.
“I came in with an open mind to see the team, watch some tapes and have some discussions with Donnie and some of the other people to see what I thought about where the team stood and where I saw it going in the future,” said Bird. “In the last week or so, we’ve had a lot of conversations about it and we just made a decision that this thing could be tough for us. We didn’t like how last year ended up, especially in the playoffs and at the end of the season when they finished 11-19.
“Our major concern was to get off to a good start and hopefully have a good year. After we talked more and more about it, we could get off to a rocky start and we’d have to go the other way. Bringing in a new coach midway in the season is very difficult on the team and it almost wastes the whole year. So today we decided to let Isiah go. It’s a tough decision but it’s a decision we had to make. We’re looking to the future and from here on out, we’re hoping we can do some great things here.”
Bird said he had just one face-to-face meeting with Thomas in the seven weeks since he was hired on July 11 and that the two rarely spoke by telephone.
“Communication wasn’t really there,” Bird said. “He’s been in and out of town and we just didn’t have any communication at all. That was just a minor factor. The major thing was looking at the team, seeing how they finished up last year and seeing what direction it was going to go in. We just didn’t feel comfortable with it.”
Thomas became coach of the Pacers in July 2000 after Bird fulfilled his three-year contract as coach. Thomas compiled a 131-115 record with a team that was rebuilt on the fly, making the playoffs every season. But the Pacers failed to advance beyond the first round, with the most recent ouster the most disappointing.
The Pacers had the best record in the Eastern Conference (34-15) at the All-Star break, earning Thomas the head coaching job in the All-Star Game. The season peaked at 37-15 shortly thereafter, as things quickly unwound.
The team lost 16 of 22 games in a stretch from Feb. 16 through March 1 and limped into the playoffs with a disappointing 48-34 record. The fourth-seeded team in the East then stumbled through a six-game loss to the fifth-seeded Boston Celtics.
Immediately after the season, Walsh said Thomas would be retained as head coach, but the scenario changed after Bird was hired.
“The bottom line is our situation did change,” Walsh said. “I was in my own mind looking at it even as I said (Thomas would return) thinking, ‘I hope this team can come back together again.’ I think at this point, I’d be real nervous about whether that can happen. But whether I would’ve on my own, without Larry being here, whether I would’ve fired him, I’m not sure.
“But I would’ve been very worried going into the season because I would agree that it could blow up early if it wasn’t together. And if it did, then we’d be in a worse situation.”
Walsh said he contacted as many players as possible to inform them of the decision and generally received non-committal answers. Jermaine O’Neal, who recently signed a 7-year contract extension, has been a staunch public supporter of Thomas.
“I think he’ll be disappointed but I also think he’ll sit down and talk to us and we’ll have a conversation about why it was done,” Walsh said. “It was done with the idea it’s in the best interest in the franchise and I think being both the man and the player he is, he’ll voice what he feels at that time and then we’ll know. I think he’s going to be disappointed as all the players are. This isn’t something people are happy about.”
O’Neal, playing with the U.S. team in an Olympic qualifying tournament in San Juan, PR, said through spokesmen for the NBA and USA Basketball that he “wants to concentrate on the USA Basketball team and the tournament and did not want to issue any statement."
Carlisle, a former teammate of Bird’s on the 1985-86 champion Celtics, was one of two assistants (the other being Dick Harter) in Bird’s tenure as the Pacers’ head coach.
In two seasons as Detroit’s head coach, Carlisle posted a record of 100-64 and was named NBA Coach of the Year after the 2001-02 season. Shortly after the Pistons were swept by New Jersey in the 2003 Eastern Conference Finals, Carlisle was fired and replaced by Larry Brown.
“I don’t know everything that went on there,” Bird said. “I was at his training camp and it looked like his players respected him. He works them hard, he’s fair with them. Whatever happened, happened. Larry Brown, to me, is one of the better coaches in the league by far. There’s a lot of great coaches but I have a lot of respect for Larry Brown and if you have a chance to get Larry Brown, you go get him.”
Asked what he was looking for in a head coach, Bird said, “Freshness.”
“I think a new coach coming in is going to bring some freshness, a new style, and hopefully he can play the game the way I like it to be played,” he said.
Bird said Carlisle’s availability “definitely” was not a factor in the decision to fire Thomas.
As for the rest of the coaching staff – assistants Ron Rothstein, Dan Burke, Mark Aguirre and George Glymph – Bird said he’d leave their fate up to the next head coach.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m sure if a coach comes in here he’s going to bring in his own staff. That’s the way it usually happens.”
The arrival of a new coach could also signal more changes within the roster.
“Chemistry goes from the top of the organization and filters down all the way through the team,” Bird said. “Now we have to look at our team and see if we have the chemistry on the team that can work together and win together. This is just starting. We’ll get the season started and go through and if other changes have to be made, they’ll have to be made.
“They’re all difficult but you’ve got to do what’s best for your franchise.”
Aug. 27, 2003
Isiah Thomas is out as the Pacers’ head coach, and it appears Rick Carlisle may well be in.
Thomas was fired Wednesday and Carlisle was identified as the top candidate by Larry Bird, President of Basketball Operations.
“I talked to Rick last night just to see if he had any interest in this job and obviously he said it’d be a great opportunity for him and he’d like to sit down and talk to us about it,” Bird said. “Probably today or tomorrow we’ll talk to Rick – probably today. Obviously he’s my first choice.”
Neither franchise CEO and President Donnie Walsh nor Bird got into details about the reasons for Thomas’ dismissal, referring generally to problems with team chemistry, communication between Thomas and Bird, and concern that the slide that marked the end of the 2002-03 season would carry over into this coming season.
“I came in with an open mind to see the team, watch some tapes and have some discussions with Donnie and some of the other people to see what I thought about where the team stood and where I saw it going in the future,” said Bird. “In the last week or so, we’ve had a lot of conversations about it and we just made a decision that this thing could be tough for us. We didn’t like how last year ended up, especially in the playoffs and at the end of the season when they finished 11-19.
“Our major concern was to get off to a good start and hopefully have a good year. After we talked more and more about it, we could get off to a rocky start and we’d have to go the other way. Bringing in a new coach midway in the season is very difficult on the team and it almost wastes the whole year. So today we decided to let Isiah go. It’s a tough decision but it’s a decision we had to make. We’re looking to the future and from here on out, we’re hoping we can do some great things here.”
Bird said he had just one face-to-face meeting with Thomas in the seven weeks since he was hired on July 11 and that the two rarely spoke by telephone.
“Communication wasn’t really there,” Bird said. “He’s been in and out of town and we just didn’t have any communication at all. That was just a minor factor. The major thing was looking at the team, seeing how they finished up last year and seeing what direction it was going to go in. We just didn’t feel comfortable with it.”
Thomas became coach of the Pacers in July 2000 after Bird fulfilled his three-year contract as coach. Thomas compiled a 131-115 record with a team that was rebuilt on the fly, making the playoffs every season. But the Pacers failed to advance beyond the first round, with the most recent ouster the most disappointing.
The Pacers had the best record in the Eastern Conference (34-15) at the All-Star break, earning Thomas the head coaching job in the All-Star Game. The season peaked at 37-15 shortly thereafter, as things quickly unwound.
The team lost 16 of 22 games in a stretch from Feb. 16 through March 1 and limped into the playoffs with a disappointing 48-34 record. The fourth-seeded team in the East then stumbled through a six-game loss to the fifth-seeded Boston Celtics.
Immediately after the season, Walsh said Thomas would be retained as head coach, but the scenario changed after Bird was hired.
“The bottom line is our situation did change,” Walsh said. “I was in my own mind looking at it even as I said (Thomas would return) thinking, ‘I hope this team can come back together again.’ I think at this point, I’d be real nervous about whether that can happen. But whether I would’ve on my own, without Larry being here, whether I would’ve fired him, I’m not sure.
“But I would’ve been very worried going into the season because I would agree that it could blow up early if it wasn’t together. And if it did, then we’d be in a worse situation.”
Walsh said he contacted as many players as possible to inform them of the decision and generally received non-committal answers. Jermaine O’Neal, who recently signed a 7-year contract extension, has been a staunch public supporter of Thomas.
“I think he’ll be disappointed but I also think he’ll sit down and talk to us and we’ll have a conversation about why it was done,” Walsh said. “It was done with the idea it’s in the best interest in the franchise and I think being both the man and the player he is, he’ll voice what he feels at that time and then we’ll know. I think he’s going to be disappointed as all the players are. This isn’t something people are happy about.”
O’Neal, playing with the U.S. team in an Olympic qualifying tournament in San Juan, PR, said through spokesmen for the NBA and USA Basketball that he “wants to concentrate on the USA Basketball team and the tournament and did not want to issue any statement."
Carlisle, a former teammate of Bird’s on the 1985-86 champion Celtics, was one of two assistants (the other being Dick Harter) in Bird’s tenure as the Pacers’ head coach.
In two seasons as Detroit’s head coach, Carlisle posted a record of 100-64 and was named NBA Coach of the Year after the 2001-02 season. Shortly after the Pistons were swept by New Jersey in the 2003 Eastern Conference Finals, Carlisle was fired and replaced by Larry Brown.
“I don’t know everything that went on there,” Bird said. “I was at his training camp and it looked like his players respected him. He works them hard, he’s fair with them. Whatever happened, happened. Larry Brown, to me, is one of the better coaches in the league by far. There’s a lot of great coaches but I have a lot of respect for Larry Brown and if you have a chance to get Larry Brown, you go get him.”
Asked what he was looking for in a head coach, Bird said, “Freshness.”
“I think a new coach coming in is going to bring some freshness, a new style, and hopefully he can play the game the way I like it to be played,” he said.
Bird said Carlisle’s availability “definitely” was not a factor in the decision to fire Thomas.
As for the rest of the coaching staff – assistants Ron Rothstein, Dan Burke, Mark Aguirre and George Glymph – Bird said he’d leave their fate up to the next head coach.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m sure if a coach comes in here he’s going to bring in his own staff. That’s the way it usually happens.”
The arrival of a new coach could also signal more changes within the roster.
“Chemistry goes from the top of the organization and filters down all the way through the team,” Bird said. “Now we have to look at our team and see if we have the chemistry on the team that can work together and win together. This is just starting. We’ll get the season started and go through and if other changes have to be made, they’ll have to be made.
“They’re all difficult but you’ve got to do what’s best for your franchise.”