Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton react to the breaking news that Indiana will retain its 65-year-old head coach on a multi-year extension.
View more
Video Transcript
We do have some breaking news coming in here.
Advertisement
We want to get to it, get you out on this breaking news, that there’s an extension at this point.
So, Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle has agreed to a multi-year extension with the Pacers.
Uh, I mean, this is what we know.
When you win an NBA championship or when you go to an NBA championship in general, when you go to the NBA Finals, uh, when you’re in proximity to the Larry O’Brien, you get a contract extension.
It happens all the time.
Also, what we know is that if your team stinks in a year or two, you’re still gonna be fired anyway.
So, this is awesome.
Rick Carlisle has been there forever.
It’s, it’s a great moment.
Advertisement
He is a great basketball coach.
He deserves to get so many bags of gold that he can roll around in a bed with coins like he’s Scrooge McDuck.
I’m very happy for him.
And this was the right thing to do and the natural thing to do, and it still won’t change anything in the future because that’s the way the NBA works.
It’s well deserved.
It’s the right move.
You go to the NBA Finals, you go to a championship.
You do absolutely deserve to be extended.
And I think this is also the Pacers’ way of saying, hey, look, we understand that next year when we are without Tyrese Halliburton after tearing his Achilles in the NBA Finals, that’s probably not going to be very good next year, but we are still committing to you long term, and we want some semblance of consistency in this organization, that we’re going to commit to you long term.
Advertisement
Does it mean anything for the next 10 years?
Probably not.
But well deserved, and congratulations to Rick Carlisle and the Indiana Pacers.
And while this might be a weird year for the Pacers as they continue to get healthy, let’s also acknowledge the fact that the Pacers played as one of the best teams in the NBA for the back half of the season.
There’s no reason to believe that they can’t get right back to where they were with a great coach on the sidelines.
So congratulations to the coach.
He’ll go out there and get his back.