A former NBA player has made a strong claim about Rick Carlisle by picking him over a five-time championship winning coach in one aspect of the game.
Rick Carlisle himself has a championship to his name as part of the Dallas Mavericks, but is closing in on adding another one as part of the Indiana Pacers.
His team is currently leading the Conference Finals 3-1 by outplaying the New York Knicks.
Stephen A. Smith had some huge words of appreciation for Carlisle as he called him a ‘Hall of Fame’ caliber coach.
He took over the reins of the Pacers in 2021 and has since led them to multiple Conference Finals appearances, but now looks set to finally take the team to their first ever NBA Finals since 2000.
Carlisle was an assistant coach on the Pacers side that had been to the NBA Finals in 2000 and one of the key players on that team was Stephen Jackson.
Jackson makes huge claim about Rick Carlisle
Although Jackson did not win a championship with the Pacers, he made a huge impact and earned the respect of the league with his performances for the team.
He then secured a move to the San Antonio Spurs, where Jackson played under Gregg Popovich and also won a championship in 2003.
However, in his recent episode on the ‘Dan Patrick Show’ he said that Carlisle has more IQ than the five-time championship winning head coach.
Jackson said: “Pop is the greatest coach I’ve played for, but the highest IQ and the smartest IQ is definitely Rick Carlisle.
“X’s and O’s, it’s not even close.”
Jackson was part of the Pacers team that were involved in the Malice at the Palace incident that not only saw him suspended, but their key player Ron Artest miss the entire season.
However, they still managed to reach the second round of the playoffs and Jackson credited that to Carlisle’s coaching.
“I really saw it when we got into the brawl and I missed half the season and Ron missed the whole season, we came back and still made the second round.
“That was basically because of Rick’s coaching, having us prepared knowing everything about the other team and to even get into the second round after everything we had been through that year was a big testament to how we had been coached by Rick and Mike Brown,” Jackson added.
Rick Carlisle has coached the Pacers brilliantly
The Pacers boast one of the best offenses in the league and a lot of credit for that must go to their coach.
Not only has he been able to get the best out of Tyrese Haliburton, who has created a few special records this postseason, but his work with players like Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith has also been special.
Alongside their brilliant offensive game, the Pacers have proven they are more than capable of playing defense as well.
While a closeout game is always difficult especially on the road, the Pacers have one of the most experienced coaches in the game and also have momentum in their favor to wrap the series up.
Not many had picked the Pacers to be the team to come out of the East, but they outperformed everyone’s expectations for the second year running and a lot of that is down to the wonderful coaching of Carlisle, who will head to his second NBA Finals as a head coach if Indiana wins the series.
