Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle stayed quiet about the NBA’s $100K tanking fine for two weeks. He didn’t mince words when he broke his silence Tuesday.
In a radio appearance on “The Fan Morning Show,” Carlisle called the NBA’s investigation “shocking” and “ridiculous” after his team drew a penalty for resting its starters on a back-to-back on Feb. 3. He particularly disagreed with an NBA lawyer’s questioning if the team “considered medicating” injured guard Aaron Nesmith.
The Indiana Pacers weren’t tanking before the All-Star break
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been sensitive about the perception that teams are losing on purpose to help their draft position. The Pacers have been losing a lot, thanks to losing All-Star Tyrese Haliburton to an Achilles tear in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. They’ve also had significant injuries to rotation players like Obi Toppin and TJ McConnell, as well as Nesmith, who has missed 25 games.
But leading up to the Feb. 3 game in question, the Pacers had gone 7-7 over their last four weeks. That’s not the record of a team losing on purpose.
Indiana dropped a close game to the Houston Rockets Feb. 2, then sat McConnell, Nesmith, Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard and now-departed Bennedict Mathurin the next night. Then they lost to a Utah Jazz team with only seven active players. (The Jazz got a $500K fine for their actions later that week.)
Carlisle took issue with the NBA’s decision:
“Yeah, I put out a statement about it. I didn’t agree with it,” Carlisle said. “There was a league lawyer that was doing the interview that kind of unilaterally decided that Aaron Nesmith, who had been injured the night before and couldn’t hold the ball, should have played in the game, which just seems ridiculous.
“And during the interview process, I was not on it, but I heard details. We asked them if they wanted to talk to the doctors, our doctors about it, because it’s something that was documented by our doctors and trainers. They said no, they didn’t need to. They talked to their doctors who did not examine Aaron Nesmith, and we asked them if they wanted to talk to the kid, and they said no, they didn’t need to.
“So this was shocking. This 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. You know, obviously didn’t agree with it. This is really the first time I’ve gone into any detail about it. But that was the deal. And so yeah, that was it.”