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When told the news of his displacement from the University of Maine’s top 10 career assists leaderboard by Junior Bernal earlier this year, Rick Carlisle, current coach of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and former player for the Boston Celtics, was astonished his two-year legacy as a Black Bear was still strong.
“I’m still that high?” he said. “Why hasn’t anyone passed me sooner?”
The easy answer — and the correct one — is that UMaine rarely entertains NBA-caliber talent, even for just two years. The only two players who have gone on from the University of Maine to play in the NBA are Carlisle and his teammate from the 1980-81 season Jeff Cross.
With college recruiting as exhaustive a practice as it is, talented players almost never slip through the cracks, but Carlisle is an exception to the rule.
“I had gone to prep school at Worcester Academy with the goal of getting a Division I scholarship, and when I finished I only had one Division I offer, and that was from Maine.”
The Ogdensburg, N.Y., native was recruited by then-UMaine coach Skip Chappelle, who remembers Carlisle as perhaps a step slow physically, but miles ahead mentally of other players.
“When Rick was here, for a Division I player, and I mean mid-major and high-major player, he was a step slow and really couldn’t jump, but he knew how to play,” Chappelle said. “And as long as he was on the floor, we didn’t have to do too much as coaches.”
In his abbreviated stint as a Black Bear, the 6-foot-5-inch point guard used his height, his shooting ability and his understanding of the game to career averages of almost 15 points per game, 4.5 assists and 55 percent shooting from the floor.
At that time, Carlisle recalls UMaine having great success as a program, especially against the top 15 to 20 teams in the nation who they were playing regularly in their out-of-conference schedule. As a forerunner to UMaine’s success, the unheralded recruit out of high school began to be noticed on a national level.
After improving a great deal from his freshman to sophomore year, transfer opportunities at major Division I programs presented themselves to Carlisle, and he was forced to question his best interests in regards to UMaine’s commitment to the basketball program.
“We didn’t have a strong basketball team as far as commitment from the administration,” Chappelle said. “And his father, who was a big corporate figure, approached the administration and asked them what they could do and what they were going to do for a commitment to basketball, and what he wanted just wasn’t there.”
Rick’s father, Preston Carlisle, wrote a letter to the administration beseeching an increased commitment to the program and offering financial assistance in that effort, which ultimately fell on deaf ears. Both father and son lauded the program that had given him the opportunity to play Division I basketball, but for all involved, it had become clear all Rick Carlisle was going to be at UMaine was a big fish in a small pond.
“Maine’s a great school and the academics are terrific, and Skip Chappelle did a great job in that program,” Carlisle said. “He recruited players that fit into that system and developed them, and there were a lot of guys that came in there unheralded that did really well. I was conflicted [about leaving] because of the faith that Maine had shown in me, but I decided if I didn’t make the move I would always wonder if I could make the move or not.”
Three years later, after co-captaining the University of Virginia to a Final Four appearance in 1984, Carlisle’s speculation was satisfied. He had risen from anonymity as a college recruit to Division I eminence after transferring to the University of Virginia, and against all odds was once again an unheralded recruit — this time for the NBA.
The next year Carlisle was selected by the Boston Celtics in the third round of the NBA Draft. In his brief career, he played alongside Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, won a championship as a reserve amidst the Celtics’ second basketball dynasty and averaged 2.2 points, 1.0 assist and 0.8 rebounds per game.
After playing three years for the Celtics and two more with the New York Knicks, the former Black Bear and Virginia Cavalier was soon dispossessed by what little quickness he had, and his ability to compete at the NBA level was suspect by the time he landed in the New Jersey Nets’ training camp in 1989. Fortunately, his basketball mind was just as sharp as ever, and he had ended up in the perfect place to start a career in coaching.
“I always felt that coaching was something that would be natural and it was something that I had strong interest in, I just wasn’t sure how it was going to happen,” Carlisle said. “And actually, I was playing my last stint of basketball with the Nets in 1989, and I made the team for a month while one of the other players was out, so I knew when he came back I was the odd man out, so I got a call from [New Jersey Coach] Bill Fitch and he said, ‘You’re waived.”
“And then he said, ‘But I have an assistant coaching position open and I think it’s something you could be good at.’ At the time the Nets only had one assistant, which was very unusual for an NBA training camp, so it didn’t take me long to decide that was what I wanted to do,” Carlisle said.
That day began what has been a very successful transition from player to coach that many aspire to but few are able to make.
Carlisle’s big break in the coaching world came when he joined former teammate Bird’s coaching staff with the Indiana Pacers in 1997. The Pacers enjoyed two of their best seasons as a franchise during Carlisle’s tenure there. He was thought to be the logical successor when Bird stepped down from his post in 2000, but the team president gave the job to Isiah Thomas.
Not to be discouraged, the then nine-year assistant coach with Bird in his corner secured the Detroit Pistons head coaching position the following season. In two seasons, Carlisle led his team to a combined record of 100-64 and consecutive playoff appearances — his efforts earning him Coach of the Year honors in 2002 — before being forced out in favor of Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown.
“It was one of the strangest things I’ve seen in basketball because they wanted Larry Brown in there for political reasons,” said Chappelle, who remains in contact with his former player. “But other people wanted him, and he did some TV work and traveled around to some different [potential coaching destinations]. Rather than just jumping into something else, he just took a step back and it was remarkable to see that he was wanted wherever he wanted to go.”
Carlisle was ultimately rehired the following season by the Indiana Pacers to be their head coach and in his first year led them to a record of 61-21 — the best in franchise history. Turmoil the following years, involving the historic fan-player brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills and several volatile personalities on the team, led the Pacers to mediocrity and Carlisle to an untimely abdication of his post.
After his resignation, Carlisle, who was still president of the NBA’s Coaches Association, garnered interest from around the league, but elected to take a year off, serving as an ESPN analyst while he considered offers from several teams.
The following summer, he accepted the head coaching position for the Dallas Mavericks and currently has his team atop the Western Conference’s Southwest Division.
As Carlisle continues to carve out his legacy in the NBA, both as a coach and as president of the Coaches’ Association, he shows the modesty of one who has risen from the bottom to the top.
“I like coaching guys that love the game, that want the responsibility of winning or losing the game and really revel in the highest level of competition,” Carlisle said. “And I’ve really enjoyed being president of the Coaches’ Association. I’ve made a lot of friends I wouldn’t have made, I’ve been able to build relations in the league office and over the past few years I have been on committees that have passed seven or eight new rules that have changed the game, and that’s been great.”
As time goes on, Carlisle may drop further in the Black Bears’ record books, and his connection to the university that gave him his start may be obscured, but his impact on the University of Maine basketball program will always live on; if not statistically, then in the memories of those he impacted in his short time here.
