INDIANAPOLIS — Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has a reputation for running a tight ship and trying to minimize his teams’ exposure to outside noise. However in 23 years as a head coach in the NBA, he’s also learned that he can’t micromanage everything and that playing in the NBA simply requires players and coaches to be able to handle the spectacle.
So when Carlisle was asked during an appearance on The Zach Lowe Show on the Ringer’s podcast network last week about having former Colts punter and multimedia sports personality Pat McAfee take the public address microphone for longer than expected during Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Carlisle said he was not only unbothered but thankful for everything McAfee has done for the atmosphere at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Lowe noted that the Pacers lost Game 4 to the Thunder in an Oklahoma City rally, but Carlisle said McAfee had made several previous appearances in the playoffs with better results.
Advertisement
“One thing I’ve learned about all this is you learn that there’s elements of what we do that are just a zoo and you can’t begin to hope to control them,” Carlisle said. “Pat McAfee has been such a great advocate for the Pacers. His presence at games, he gets on the mic and fires people up pretty regularly in fourth quarters. It’s helped us win way more games than it’s caused us to lose. … We need Pat McAfee to continue to do what he’s doing and maybe the problem was he didn’t do it long enough in the game.”
Re-live the Pacers’ unbelievable run to the NBA Finals with our commemorative book
Carlisle’s reaction speaks more broadly about the ways he’s tried to embrace modern times. Lowe asked him about Netflix documentarians who followed All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton around all season. Lowe said that he heard Carlisle was finally OK with it after Haliburton hit a game-winning jumper in Game 1 of the Finals and that after that game he said something along the lines of “If he’s going to make shots like that those guys can come in the locker room whenever they want.” Carlisle said he might have said something close to that and said it’s simply part of the basketball world he’s had to get used to. He also said the Fever — and possibly the Pacers — have an idea in mind to get ahead of it.
“Podcasting is going on everywhere,” Carlisle said. “The Fever are building a new practice facility. They’re going to have a content creation room and a podcasting room. We’re going to make some changes and additions to our practice facility and the Fieldhouse. We had a meeting two days ago about, ‘Do we need a content room and do we need a podcast room?’ My initial reaction was ‘Huh?’ Then I thought about it and, you know what, we do. This is something that may be a tiebreaker if you get into free agency with a player who has a podcast. These things are reality. My job now is to normalize this stuff as much as possible on the one hand without allowing it to go too far the other way.”
Advertisement
Get IndyStar’s Pacers coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Pacers Update newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pat McAfee won more games than he lost for the Pacers per Rick Carlisle