INDIANAPOLIS — When Larry Bird stepped down as coach of the Pacers following their trip to the NBA Finals in 2000 and the franchise hired Isiah Thomas as their new coach, Rick Carlisle found himself without a job.

After 11 years as an assistant for three teams including the last three seasons with the Pacers, he believed he was ready to be a head coach, but when the music stopped before the 2000-01 season he was left without a chair.

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So Gregg Popovich, a little over a year removed from his first NBA championship with the Spurs, reached out to Carlisle. He didn’t have a job for him, but he brought him to spend time with the Spurs to give him a chance to prepare for the head coaching opportunity Popovich knew was eventually coming. The next year, Carlisle was hired as head coach of the Pistons and has now won 993 games in 23 seasons as a head coach.

“That fall he invited me to come down to their camp to watch and sit in on some meetings and actually travel with them for a couple of games, which was really meaningful for me and really gave me a lot of confidence heading into a year where I was trying to become a first-year head coach,” Carlisle said after Pacers practice Saturday. “… It was just a great opportunity to see how he operated his team. His approach to relationships, his approach to delegation of staff, etc. etc. I learned a lot. He was a guy who empowered his players and he empowered his staff too. It’s one of the reasons why so many of his former assistants have gone on and become head coaches and been very successful.”

The Spurs announced Friday that Popovich has retired from coaching after five NBA championships and a record 1,422 wins in 29 years as coach going back to 1996. He suffered a mild stroke in November and hadn’t been coaching since and also was hospitalized last month after a medical incident at a San Antonio restaurant. Popovich, an East Chicago native and Merrillville High School graduate, will maintain a position in the Spurs front office and assistant coach Mitch Johnson, who had been working as interim head coach, has had the “interim” removed from his title.

The coaches in the league remaining in the playoffs have taken opportunities to extend their gratitude, well-wishes and respect to Popovich, and Carlisle did the same Saturday.

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“He’s the greatest coach in NBA history,” Carlisle said. “He has the most all-time wins, that’s one thing. But he won five championships through multiple eras. He kept adjusting to the evolution of the game and he was a big part of the evolution of the game too. All of those things are beyond notable. And he helped so many coaches along the way. His coaching tree is amazing. … His impact on the coaching profession and the entire game is massive. The important thing is that his health is good and going in a great direction and he’s still going to be involved.”

Carlisle and Popovich coached against each other at least four times per year when Carlisle was in Dallas from 2008-21 and he got to see up close what made him so good. Carlisle won an NBA title in 2011 with the Mavericks, but Popovich won his last one in 2014.

“It’s a seismic thing that he is out of coaching,” Carlisle said. “But with over 1,400 wins, the most of all-time, his mark is indelible.”

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Gregg Popovich retires from coaching: Rick Carlisle says ‘indelible’ impact