{"id":623059,"date":"2026-02-25T02:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/623059\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T02:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:36:28","slug":"carlisle-questions-nbas-decision-to-fine-pacers-league-responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/623059\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlisle Questions NBA\u2019s Decision To Fine Pacers; League Responds"},"content":{"rendered":"

2:34 pm: An NBA spokesperson issued a statement to Sam Amick of The Athletic (Twitter link<\/a>) to push back against Carlisle\u2019s framing of the investigation into the Pacers.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cCoach Carlisle\u2019s description of the process that went into the decision to fine the Indiana Pacers is inaccurate,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cAn independent physician led the medical review. In addition, the Pacers\u2019 general manager and the team\u2019s senior vice president (of) sports medicine and performance were interviewed as part of the process. The Pacers confirmed that it had provided all of the information requested by the league and the team reported that an interview with Coach Carlisle or a team physician wasn\u2019t necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

1:36 pm: The Pacers were one of two teams fined by the NBA<\/a> ahead of the All-Star break for the manner in which they were managing their players. While Indiana\u2019s $100K fine paled in comparison to the $500K penalty the Jazz received, commissioner Adam Silver\u2018s statement at the time suggested that the league believed both clubs were prioritizing \u201cdraft position over winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pacers were disciplined for holding out Pascal Siakam<\/a> and two other players for a February 3 game against Utah. According to the league\u2019s statement, the NBA determined, with the help of an independent physician, that all three could have played in the game, perhaps in reduced roles.<\/p>\n

The league fined Indiana for violating the league\u2019s player participation policy<\/a>, noting in its statement that the Pacers also could have held out those players in other games in order to better promote compliance with the policy.<\/p>\n

Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle didn\u2019t address the fine at length at the time it happened, but he was more open about it during a radio appearance on 107.5 The Fan on Tuesday, making it clear to Kevin Bowen and James Boyd that he didn\u2019t think the NBA made the right call (Twitter video link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t agree with it,\u201d Carlisle said (story via Boyd for The Athletic<\/a>). \u201cThere was a league lawyer that was doing the interview that kind of unilaterally decided that Aaron Nesmith<\/a>, who had been injured the night before and couldn\u2019t hold the ball, should have played in the game, which just seems ridiculous.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the interview process \u2013 I was not on it, but I heard details \u2013 we asked them if they wanted to talk to the doctors, our doctors, about it because it was something that was documented by our doctors and trainers. They said no, they didn\u2019t need to. They talked to their doctors, who did not examine Aaron Nesmith. And we asked them if they wanted to talk to (Nesmith), and they said, no, they didn\u2019t need to.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was shocking to me. And during the interview, they also asked if we considered medicating him to play in a game when we were 30 games under .500. So I was very surprised. Obviously didn\u2019t agree with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that Siakam (who sat out on Feb. 3 due to \u201crest\u201d) was the only player specifically named in the NBA\u2019s statement, and he meets the criteria of a \u201cstar\u201d<\/a> under the player participation policy. So if the league felt that the Pacers\u2019 management of Siakam violated the policy, it could make the case for a $100K fine (the penalty for a first-time offender) without requiring any additional reasons.<\/p>\n

Still, the NBA\u2019s statement suggested the league determined that two additional starters held out of that Feb. 3 game \u2013 believed to be Nesmith (left hand strain) and Andrew Nembhard<\/a> (low back injury management) \u2013 were healthy enough to play. Carlisle\u2019s comments call into question how the NBA made that determination and whether or not it was accurate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2:34 pm: An NBA spokesperson issued a statement to Sam Amick of The Athletic (Twitter link) to push…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[280,1784,7,279,1714],"class_list":{"0":"post-623059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-aaron-nesmith","9":"tag-andrew-nembhard","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-pascal-siakam","12":"tag-rick-carlisle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116128946504055781","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}