Rick Carlisle resigned as coach of the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday, the 2nd significant death for this franchise for as many days.
His conclusion was announced just one day following general director Donnie Nelson and the team agreed to part ways, finishing a 24-year run for Nelson within their company.
“This was my conclusion,” Carlisle said in a statement published to ESPN soon prior to the team announced he was departing.
Dallas becomes the seventh group having a training vacancy, joining New Orleans, Washington, Orlando, Indiana, Portland — and Boston, in which Carlisle played with the group which won the 1986 NBA name.
And the Mavericks require a trainer and a GM, within an offseason where they are also expected to provide 22-year-old Luka Doncic, the team’s greatest player and now a two-time All-NBA celebrity, a $201 million expansion.
Carlisle went 555-478 at Dallas, carrying a group assembled around Dirk Nowitzki into the name in 2011 — the very first, and only, in Mavs’ history. Dallas created six playoff appearances in the 10 seasons that followed, not getting from the initial round in some of them.
However, Dallas owner Mark Cuban insisted following this year’s playoff series finished — that the Mavs went 0-3 at home in what turned into a seven-game first-round reduction to the Los Angeles Clippers — which Carlisle was secure and could return.
Carlisle, seemingly, had other thoughts. Carlisle told ESPN he had”a range of in-person discussions” with Cuban lately, then came to the conclusion that it was time to proceed.
“Rick advised me today about his decision to resign as head coach,” Cuban said. “Along with being a huge basketball coach, he was also a friend and a confidant. Rick helped us deliver the O’Brien Trophy to Dallas and people are memories that I will always cherish.”
San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich became trainer there in 1996; Miami’s Erik Spoelstra has been promoted to head coach by the Heat about fourteen days before Carlisle obtained the job at Dallas.
The third-longest tenured coach in the league today is Golden State’s Steve Kerr — that was sixth on this list about a couple of weeks ago, until Terry Stotts abandoned Portland, Brad Stevens left as trainer at Boston to become the Celtics’ president, and Carlisle departed Dallas.
Carlisle, in his announcement to ESPN, obviously indicated that his training days aren’t done.
He travelled 50-32 with Detroit this year, spending two years with the Pistons, then moved right into a four-year stint with Indiana before finally coming into Dallas.
At a 19-year profession, he’s 836 wins — 15th-most in NBA history and third among active coaches supporting Popovich along with Philadelphia’s Doc Rivers. Carlisle is also among just 14 people to acquire an NBA championship as both a player and a head coach.
