Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle stayed quiet in regards to the NBA’s $100K tanking fine for 2 weeks. He did not mince phrases when he broke his silence Tuesday.
In a radio look on “The Fan Morning Present,” Carlisle referred to as the NBA’s investigation “stunning” and “ridiculous” after his workforce drew a penalty for resting its starters on a back-to-back on Feb. 3. He notably disagreed with an NBA lawyer’s questioning if the workforce “thought of medicating” injured guard Aaron Nesmith.
The Indiana Pacers weren’t tanking earlier than the All-Star break
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been delicate in regards to the notion that groups are dropping on goal to assist their draft place. The Pacers have been dropping quite a bit, because of dropping All-Star Tyrese Haliburton to an Achilles tear in Recreation 7 of the NBA Finals. They’ve additionally had important accidents to rotation gamers like Obi Toppin and TJ McConnell, in addition to Nesmith, who has missed 25 video games.
However main as much as the Feb. 3 sport in query, the Pacers had gone 7-7 over their final 4 weeks. That is not the file of a workforce dropping on goal.
Indiana dropped an in depth sport to the Houston Rockets Feb. 2, then sat McConnell, Nesmith, Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard and now-departed Bennedict Mathurin the subsequent night time. Then they misplaced to a Utah Jazz workforce with solely seven lively gamers. (The Jazz bought a $500K nice for his or her actions later that week.)
Carlisle took subject with the NBA’s resolution:
“Yeah, I put out a press release about it. I did not agree with it,” Carlisle mentioned. “There was a league lawyer that was doing the interview that form of unilaterally determined that Aaron Nesmith, who had been injured the night time earlier than and could not maintain the ball, ought to have performed within the sport, which simply appears ridiculous.
“And throughout the interview course of, I used to be not on it, however I heard particulars. We requested them in the event that they wished to speak to the docs, our docs about it, as a result of it is one thing that was documented by our docs and trainers. They mentioned no, they did not must. They talked to their docs who didn’t look at Aaron Nesmith, and we requested them in the event that they wished to speak to the child, they usually mentioned no, they did not must.
“So this was stunning. This was stunning to me. And throughout the interview in addition they requested if we thought of medicating him to play in a sport after we had been 30 video games beneath .500. So I used to be very stunned. You already know, clearly did not agree with it. That is actually the primary time I’ve gone into any element about it. However that was the deal. And so yeah, that was it.”
