Rick Carlisle on the firing of Tom Thibodeau, who his Pacers just beat in the Eastern Conference Finals: “I’m at a loss to explain it. This was something that I didn’t believe was possible.”

42 comments

1. Welcome to the NBA

2. What’s with the random dude in the middle?

3. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLEEEEEEEEEEE

4. He said he initially thought the news was a fake AI post lol

5. Guy wants to keep farming us for free wins 😂

6. Rick could’ve just gone easy on the Knicks but no he has to expose them

7. I just want one coach in the league to be like, “well I beat his ass like a drum is what happened. He paid the price and it is what it is.”

8. Shout out my guy EJ

9. Rick Carlisle is a class act.

10. Thanks for providing context that his team beat the Knicks.

11. The Knicks did it quite well but the managment and the fans want more. It’s hard that expectation is so high.

12. Wtf is Eddie doing hahahah

13. Suns legend and certified microphone holder Eddie Johnson, ladies and gentlemen

14. Times like this I miss around the horn

15. Imagine beating the Celtics, who were favored all throughout the year to come out of the East, and getting fired

16. “a lot of lean years, I mean a lot of lean years” Rick very nicely saying Knicks weren’t shit before thibs showed up.

17. Totally thought the guy in the middle was a statue

18. oh Rick

19. Why do people care so much about this firing lol

20. I mean this same thing happened to Rick himself in 2003.

21. Poor Eddie Johnson! Why isn’t Justin holding the recorder? Respect your elders, Justin!

22. Watch the pacers fire him if they lose in the finals and then okc fire dagnault bc he stopped winning after June 15th

23. That’s first time I’ve seen Justin Termine after listening to the show for ages – face does not match what I thought he’d look like lol

24. Most of yall here for the show. Rick is here for basketball. If it were a religion he would be a saint cause he is devoted to the game. Not the business. Not the drama. Just the game. If the nba would quit fucking around the nba truthers would be as hard core as the nhl fans.

25. right

26. Bro his job is to hold the phone up??!

27. Coaches will always have each other’s back. There’s 30 of these jobs in the world.

28. Yeah baaaabbbbyyy

29. We’ve heard more about Rick Carlisle’s thoughts on Tom Thibodeau than we have his thoughts on the Finals

30. Maybe Thibs will finally settle down

31. Same thing kinda happened to Carlisle no? Im probably totally off base

32. Coaches always stick up for each other and say the cliche things whenever a coach gets fired.

    Remember Malone’s rant when Mike Brown got fired?

    Anyways that paid attention to the Knicks all season knew there were issues. A lot of us thought he was for sure gone if they weren’t competitive against the Celtics.

    Since they beat the Celtics and got to the ECF, it felt less certain for sure. But context is important. The Celtics were far from at their best and the Pacers were very beatable. It was a great opportunity and the Knicks failed in part due to season long issues that he was never able to address.

    Also the idea that the team did better this year due to going further is flawed when you consider they lost to the same team. Last year they lost in 7 despite having a worse roster and tons of injuries. This year they were healthy and lost in 6.

33. This interview setup is weird lol

34. It took firing Mark Jackson to get GS over. This team peaked with Thibs.

35. Coaches are getting fired left and right nowadays why are ppl still surprised?

36. Same dude trying to bait Thibs into playing his end of rotation dudes (he brought up how “good” Precious is every press conference in the series lol)

37. Dude in the middle was so still at the beginning I thought he was a cardboard cut out for a good 5,6 seconds. (Noticed the blinking eventually)

38. Like Carlisle a lot. Seems like a Good dude.

39. Uh oh, Malone said the same of Mike Brown and then he got fired.

    Rick Carlisle is next if he doesn’t stop supporting his boomer friend. Gotta keep your opinions on the low lol.

40. Why does this look like a hostage video?

41. is that my guy EJ 😂

42. Coaches will always stick up for each other because they do get shafted a lot of the times. But Thibs seems like a lost cause. He’s a great assistant coach. But when it comes to pragmatic planning across the board he is limited.

    The coaches that win championships are coaching up the other guys so when it’s playoffs and the stars need some reliable help, the other guys are ready to show up BIG. It could be a different one each night or certain ones stepping up for an entire series. Thibs kind of keeps his team on autopilot and runs his best players into the ground. That doesn’t work in the playoffs unless you have generational talent.

    Mike Malone is the obvious choice. He’s great with more finesse style big men like Demarcus and Jokic. KAT seems like in that same family tree of playing styles. I think he’d also be able to utilize Mitchel Robinson, Mikhail and OG properly. There’s a lot of flexibility there that Thibs barely scratched the surface with and by then it was too late. Plus Mike kinda loves doing press conferences so he embrace the news media.