I’m hearing from contacts in the UVA Basketball community that there is a sense that Rick Carlisle, win or lose in Sunday’s NBA Finals Game 7, could be headed toward retirement at the end of the season.
Carlisle, who led the Dallas Mavericks to the 2011 NBA title, has led the Indiana Pacers on an improbable run to being a game away from a championship.
The 1984 UVA Basketball alum is on his second stint as the head coach in Indiana, taking over in 2021 with what was, at that point, a rebuilding job.
His first team finished 25-57, but by Year 3, Carlisle had the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, and his 2024-2025 team won 50 regular-season games, upset top-seeded Cleveland in the conference semifinals, then got past the New York Knicks in the Eastern Finals.
The 108-91 Pacers win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday got us the best thing in sports, a winner-take-all Game 7, and though OKC, which won 68 games in the regular season, are the heavy betting favorites, anything can happen in a one-and-done game.
The speculation about Carlisle’s future is based on where he is in life, at 65, finishing up his 24th season as an NBA head coach, with work on a new home in the Charlottesville area now complete.
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Chris Graham
