December 9, 2025 • 19 mins
Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle joins us to discuss a solid win against the Kings last night, Ethan Thompson stepping up and making an impact, his next win being the 1,000th of his career, Garrison Matthews, the oldest player he played with or coached, attending the Purdue game, Wheel of Fortune vs. Jeopardy & more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Indiana Pacers now headed into a stretch with a
(00:02):
lot of practice time. I would think, here with just
two games in the next nine days or so, and
talk more about it. Rick Carlisle joins us now coach,
Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
How you doing doing fine?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Big fourth quarter from your top three last night? Some
shot making certainly as the lead evaporate, and I thought
some big time hustle plays from the great story that
is Ethan Thompson. What what did you see change there
once Sacramento took the lead there late.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, we we button things down defensively. That was a
big thing. I mean, you know, a seventeen point defensive
quarter in the fourth was absolutely needed. And right now,
you know, our identity has got to be that we're
a defense first team. There's evidence that were very capable
(00:51):
of it. You know, last eight games, I think we're
ranked fourth and defense in the league. I mean that's
a real positive thing. You know, offensive, you know, things
things come and go with shot making and this, that
and the other. But uh, you know, the defense in
the fourth was key. And then you know Nemhart had
a monster game. Uh Siakam played extremely well, as you know,
(01:16):
virtually it seems like he always does. And then Matturn
was was terrific and so good win. Uh we got
a more or less an off day today, two days
of practice and then hit the Philly rick.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
When you look at Andrew Nimharne's career, and I'm thinking
back to his rookie season, I believe he had a
game winner against the Lakers at the buzzer. So he's
made big shots before, but how have you seen him
just continue to grow in those fourth quarters, the big
moments and embrace the challenges that kind of a way
when things get tight.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, fearless player, you know it really is. And had
a you know, had an attitude of just kind of
this moxie when he came in here as a as
a first year player, you know he was he was
good in training camp. You know, he's one of our
better defensive players. Was not spectacular offensively, but we knew that.
(02:13):
You know, he had the lineage, you know, he had
the career at Gonzaga. I think they went to the
final game or the final four, whatever, it was his
senior year, and I didn't even play in game one
that year. Game two I think we played maybe in
Detroit that we played or something, but he we needed
(02:34):
him to guard I think Kate Cunningham in his rookie
year and he and he came in there and and
was terrific and really solid, and then it became clear
that the thing to do maybe to put him as
a secondary ball handler and a hybrid two guard and
a guy that could take a matchup to start games.
(02:55):
And so you know, he kind of ended up going
that direction and in relatively short order, and that's how
it's gone. Now this year, the role is is extremely different,
you know, being the main guy with the ball, the
main guy taking a matchup, and so one of the
challenges has been, you know, who can we put next
(03:17):
to him, they can give us a little ball handling,
who is also a solid defender, you know, who can
make an open shot, you know when when when he's
feeling the heat and getting a lot of extra attention.
And so, you know, the irony is Shepherd had played
played one of his best games against Denver and then
then he got banged up. And so you know, we're
(03:39):
in Chicago and you know, we had had Ethan Thompson
on the on the roster for a couple of days
and I just felt, you know, it's time to give
this guy an early look. And it's a twenty five
or twenty six year old guy, so you know, it's
not like he's your typical first year player. He's been
playing professional basketball for five or six years. He he
(04:00):
just has a moxie and a and a tone about him,
you know, where he's just unafraid, looks like he belongs.
And uh, you know, he stepped right out in the
end of the game against Chicago and Frank it was
hard to get him out of the game, you know. So, uh,
he did well there last night. You know, I thought
he was was solid again and so, uh, you know
(04:22):
that's as you mentioned, that's that's a that's a really
nice story. And as we move forward, you know, we're
going to keep trying to get guys a little healthier
each day and uh and keeping it keep working on
who we are.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Rick, for those of mine have missed it, could you
share on specifically that Friday game with Chicago. I don't
know if maybe you found out Shepherd's status for the game,
but you know, Ethan Thompson was originally I think drilling
was some of your developmental guys over at the United Center,
and then you realize what it was going to look
like for you that night, and that he was going
to play important minutes for you, and you had to
(04:58):
make a call over there to say, hey, we got
to get Ethan Thompson off the floor. He's gonna play
some pivotal minutes for the big league tonight. How how
unique is that? And I guess what does that say about?
You know, this kid who just made his NBA debut
a few nights earlier.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
It's it's it's it's certainly not a typical year in
a lot of ways. And we knew, we knew Shepherd
wasn't gonna play. He wasn't on the trip. You know,
the question was, you know, uh, the plan was to
start Matthews, who had been playing well, and then you know,
kind of go from there. And it seemed to me
like the best thing to do would be to start
(05:35):
Matthews and then you know, we'll toss uh, we'll toss
Ethan in there. But you know what happened was we
had some of our interns come up to Chicago. You know,
we're working on getting Quintin Jackson back. One of the
things he needs to do is is play and so
after shoot around on Friday, a group of low minute
guys and interns, we're gonna play and you know that's
(05:59):
Tyalen Peter, that's as Quinton Jackson. I think Ethan assumed
he was part of the part of that group too,
which you know, which is good, you know, and look,
if he had played, it probably wouldn't have you know,
may not have made that big a difference. But as
we're on the bus headed back to the hotel after
shooting around, you know, I called over there to see
(06:22):
if he was playing, because my plan was, you know,
not going to be to start him, but to get
him in the game pretty early. And somebody said, yeah,
they know, they just started playing. I said, well, pull
him out because he's probably gonna play. He's gonna play
minutes tonight, I don't know how many. And so they
pulled him out, you know. So that was that was
kind of it. But that's that's how this year has
kind of been. There's been some unique aspects to it.
(06:48):
Challenges slash opportunities, and so, you know, one of the
one of the challenges is the injuries. And then a
great example of opportunity is is Ethan Thompson being the
right place at the right time.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Page has one four of six. Again, as Carlisle laid out,
there a little bit of time off. They'll have Philly
in Washington coming up on a Friday and Sunday, but
not a ton of game action here over the next
ten days or so. Coach, your next win will be
one thousand for your career. I think you'd become I
believe it's the eleventh coach in NBA history to reach
(07:21):
the Comma mark, if you will. Does that matter to
you at all? Does that mean anything to you? That number?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, I don't know. I you know, I it al
leayst feels like it's the best not to talk about
things like this and just and just try to keep going,
you know, but look it just it just means I've
I've been very blessed over the years with a lot
of great situations, great ownership, terrific players, a very supportive family,
(07:53):
all that. But I I, you know, I don't want
to put the horse before the card. I mean, this
year is a very good example of how, you know,
winning one NBA game is extremely difficult, you know, and
when you when and when you get extraordinary circumstances as
we've had this year. You know, putting the chicken before
(08:15):
the egg, or the egg before the chicken or whatever
it is, just doesn't just doesn't feel right.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Rick, to look at other guys in your ross. You
stepped up Garrison Matthews. I mean, the guy is an
all out shooter. How have you seen m perhaps find
his rhythm as of leat on it early on, you know,
once in the ball as well. But it seems like
he's gotten comfortable just being integrated into this offense with
obviously new teammates.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Well, you know, he's he's a guy that's a gunslinger.
He's gonna he's gonna play his game. He knows who
he is, he knows what's get, what gets him on
an NBA roster, and what gets him on the floor.
The challenge was that you know, he he had he
been I believe the last cut on New York it
was down to him and Landry Shammit. And the word
(09:02):
we got was that, you know, he had shot the
ball as well or maybe even a little bit better
than Shammitt. But there was just you know, the tie
breaker was just you know, the ultimate fit with the
team and all that kind of stuff. I don't really know,
that doesn't really matter. But he was sitting out, you know,
for probably the better part of a month. And you know,
(09:23):
we went through four or five different guys before we
got to him, and in fact, in fact, you know,
we had the one workout in Dallas where we worked
out three guys. Eventually all three guys ended up on
the roster. None of the three are on are on
the club anymore. And so we were cycling onto another
group of two or three guys, and we thought we
(09:45):
had a group of three that we're going to come
in for a workout, but one of them was headed overseas,
another one had some personal things going on, and the
timing wasn't right, and so you know, Garrison was the
only guy available. So we brought him in and we
needed shooting, we needed spacing, and the task was to
(10:07):
help him get shape, you know, and so Woyd Pierce
did a really great job, just you know, starting kind
of from scratch. You know, you can be at home
and you can be working out on your own and
and and that kind of stuff, but you know, it's
it's it's virtually impossible to simulate NBA practices in NBA
games and so it took, you know, it took a
(10:30):
good four or five days to get him to where
you know, he felt like his legs were there, et cetera,
et cetera. His first game was at Cleveland Whenever. That
was two and a half weeks ago. You know, he
went in the game, he got some clean shots off,
nothing went in, but the signs were good and it
kind of went from there. And so when he got
to the end of his first ten day and this
(10:53):
we're talking about a ten day team injury hardship contract.
I mean it's like a whole sentence, like you got
to say a whole set to describe what it is.
You know, you know, he hadn't made he hadn't made
a lot of shots yet, but it just felt to
us like, you know, he had done the work and
he was close, and so, uh, you know, we brought
him back. In the first game, he uh, he got
(11:16):
it going. And then you know, last night he hit
some big shots, had a four point play, et cetera.
And with him, you know, he's a guy you got
to count for on a scouting report. I mean you don't,
you don't account for him. I mean I think in
one or two years. In the last four or five
he's led the league in four point plays, et cetera,
et cetera. So an easy guy to like. You know,
(11:40):
he's just he's he's gritty, he's he's kind of you
know who we are, you know, right now as a team,
and so we're we're happy to have him on board.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
So you talked about bringing in guys for workouts, and
the Colts are or have actually brought in Philip Rivers
forty four, your old quarterback in for a workout. So
in your coaching or playing career, do you remember the
oldest player you played with or coached?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Oh? Boy, trying to think, well, you know, Dirk was
the oldest I think that I coached. I think he
was he was forty, you know, in his twenty first year. Look,
Jason Kidd was thirty eight when we won the championship
with him, and and there have been others, you know,
and you know, James Johnson I think was thirty seven
last year. Yeah, there there's been there's been guys like that.
(12:34):
But but I will say this, you not underestimate change Stiking.
I mean, I think it's pretty clear that he's the
best coach of quarterbacks. You know, really anybody's seen in
the last several years. I mean, what he's done with
a whole long list of guys and so to me,
the guys, the guys a master. I think he's done
(12:54):
an incredible, amazing job this year. There's a long way
to go in their season, you know, I know, things
things can things can look uh can look dreary at times,
but uh, there's an upbeat, upbeat fan base, you know,
super upbeat franchise added the Pacers and uh and we're
really told for them.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
That's Rick Carlile and pass have one four of six.
They beat Sacramento last night. They've got Philly coming up
this weekend. He's with us here on the Payloffs Liquers Hotline.
Did I hear you were at the Purdue game on Saturday?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I was, Yeah, I was. I was there with with
Sonny Beck from Becks Hybrids, which was which is a
c company. Sonny and and uh and his uh his
operation are supporters of driving Dish, which we're grateful for.
And he invited me to a game a long time ago.
(13:48):
And so yeah, I went up there and had amazing
seats one in an atmosphere at the I had the
privilege of sitting with Sunny on my right and Brian
Cardinal on my left. Okay, so there's two living legends. Now.
Cardinal not only not only is he a for due legend,
(14:09):
but Cardinal played for US on the twenty eleven championship
team in Dallas. And I'm going to tell you a
short story about Cardinals. So in game six out we
had played the series in the finals. In the fourth game,
we had to make some adjustments to our rotation because
of matchups, and so we started playing Brian Cardinal over
(14:32):
another more you know, more established household name type player. Well,
Cardinal was playing effectively. You know, his game is not
the most beautiful game in the world, but when you
look at his production and what happens as a winning player,
the guy's pretty amazing what he did in his career.
So we won game We won game four to tie
(14:55):
the series. We won game five. In game six at Miami,
we're up three two with a chance to close out
the series. Gets his second foul like five minutes into
the game, and so boom, here comes Cardinal. Now the
scorer is we're either down five or down seven. I
(15:16):
forget which Dirk had had a rough shot making night
to start the game, Vegas two fouls. Cardinal comes in
the game. We go from let's say it was down
five at the end of the first quarter, we were
up seven. Okay, we go plus twelve with Cardinal in
the game. Dirk comes back in the game. Now Dirks
(15:41):
is continuing. It's continuing to have trouble making shots. So
we go. We get into halftime and Cardinal of Dirt
were really good friends. And Cardinal's seat is right next
to Dirk's in the locker room. And as we walk in,
as the cooch staff, Cardinal was in there, and the
locker room is pretty quiet, but we still had a
two point lead, and Cardinals saying, this is great, man,
(16:05):
and he was calling Dirty Dirty Dirty Dirk was Dirt,
Dirk's uh nickname. He goes dirty, This is great. You
got all the misses out, bro, He's got to keep shooting.
This is gonna be great, This is gonna be awesome, man.
And so and so we we come in and we
we end up setting up a play to try to
get Dirk an open shot with JJ Ray has set
(16:26):
a pin down for him. He comes off, hits the shot,
in the second half. He may have missed one shot,
but he was great. But the Cardinals Cardinals impact on
that championship is is always going to be overlooked. But
he's He's one of the most resourceful players I've ever
(16:47):
been around. And when you walk around the Mackie Mackie
Center with him, you know, the guy, it's like it's
like walking around with Tom Brady, you know. I mean,
he's just uh, everybody every but he knows and loves
him and uh and and and I certainly.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Know why that some great, great stuff, absolute predue legend.
Brian Cardinal. Well, we'll end with this, coach, and as always,
we appreciate the time. I did have a chuckle a
couple of games ago. You said afterwards in regards to
timeouts that it would be great if you could buy
timeouts like vows and Wheel of Fortune? Are you more
Wheel of Fortune? Are you more Jeopardy?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Oh? Gosh, I like both, But yeah, I mean, look
those timeouts, you're not out of timeouts. They just they
just have a price, and so you gotta you just
gotta decide if it's worth it to take to take
one and and spend a you know, a technical free
throw work, give the team the possession back. And I
(17:51):
as I described after the game, and look, I don't
mean to make fun of it or make light of
it or anything like that. But if the other team
already has the ball and you feel like your guys need,
you know, a minute, fifteen seconds, you know, for whatever reason.
Maybe it's maybe maybe you just don't have a lot
of guys left on your roster that night, and they
(18:11):
you just feel like they need a little bit of
a break to finish the game. Whatever. You know, if
it's already the other team's ball, it's it's one technical
free throw. It's not it's not the end of the world,
you know. But I don't like doing it. I only
do it when it's that's when I feel it's necessary.
We didn't do it at all last year or the
year before. I don't think these have been extraordinary circumstances
(18:33):
this year. So sometimes sometimes it happens like that.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Picture an R. S T L N E. And you
up there getting some letters there and the end of
will fortune. I'm always invading what I would go with
their c D. Would you go with Val? Would you
would gotta go Val? I feel like you gotta go Val,
gotta go Val with this RS.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Well, some of the you know, there's like on Instagram,
there's there's some of these things where people are making
the wrong guesses at the at the butt and what
the puzzle says, and some of the stuff is you know,
it transcends, you know, the question of which value buy.
Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I need a documentary on us, say, the least Pacers
night off tonight, so I guess we could watch A
little Wheel Fortune, a Little Jeopardy. They'll be back Friday
six ers and Sunday afternoon. They've got the wizards inside
of gamebridge Field House coach, thank you as always. We'll
talk to you next week
Speaker 2 (19:23):
All right, guys, pickure
The Indiana Pacers now headed into a stretch with a
(00:02):
lot of practice time. I would think, here with just
two games in the next nine days or so, and
talk more about it. Rick Carlisle joins us now coach,
Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
How you doing doing fine?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Big fourth quarter from your top three last night? Some
shot making certainly as the lead evaporate, and I thought
some big time hustle plays from the great story that
is Ethan Thompson. What what did you see change there
once Sacramento took the lead there late.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, we we button things down defensively. That was a
big thing. I mean, you know, a seventeen point defensive
quarter in the fourth was absolutely needed. And right now,
you know, our identity has got to be that we're
a defense first team. There's evidence that were very capable
(00:51):
of it. You know, last eight games, I think we're
ranked fourth and defense in the league. I mean that's
a real positive thing. You know, offensive, you know, things
things come and go with shot making and this, that
and the other. But uh, you know, the defense in
the fourth was key. And then you know Nemhart had
a monster game. Uh Siakam played extremely well, as you know,
(01:16):
virtually it seems like he always does. And then Matturn
was was terrific and so good win. Uh we got
a more or less an off day today, two days
of practice and then hit the Philly rick.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
When you look at Andrew Nimharne's career, and I'm thinking
back to his rookie season, I believe he had a
game winner against the Lakers at the buzzer. So he's
made big shots before, but how have you seen him
just continue to grow in those fourth quarters, the big
moments and embrace the challenges that kind of a way
when things get tight.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, fearless player, you know it really is. And had
a you know, had an attitude of just kind of
this moxie when he came in here as a as
a first year player, you know he was he was
good in training camp. You know, he's one of our
better defensive players. Was not spectacular offensively, but we knew that.
(02:13):
You know, he had the lineage, you know, he had
the career at Gonzaga. I think they went to the
final game or the final four, whatever, it was his
senior year, and I didn't even play in game one
that year. Game two I think we played maybe in
Detroit that we played or something, but he we needed
(02:34):
him to guard I think Kate Cunningham in his rookie
year and he and he came in there and and
was terrific and really solid, and then it became clear
that the thing to do maybe to put him as
a secondary ball handler and a hybrid two guard and
a guy that could take a matchup to start games.
(02:55):
And so you know, he kind of ended up going
that direction and in relatively short order, and that's how
it's gone. Now this year, the role is is extremely different,
you know, being the main guy with the ball, the
main guy taking a matchup, and so one of the
challenges has been, you know, who can we put next
(03:17):
to him, they can give us a little ball handling,
who is also a solid defender, you know, who can
make an open shot, you know when when when he's
feeling the heat and getting a lot of extra attention.
And so, you know, the irony is Shepherd had played
played one of his best games against Denver and then
then he got banged up. And so you know, we're
(03:39):
in Chicago and you know, we had had Ethan Thompson
on the on the roster for a couple of days
and I just felt, you know, it's time to give
this guy an early look. And it's a twenty five
or twenty six year old guy, so you know, it's
not like he's your typical first year player. He's been
playing professional basketball for five or six years. He he
(04:00):
just has a moxie and a and a tone about him,
you know, where he's just unafraid, looks like he belongs.
And uh, you know, he stepped right out in the
end of the game against Chicago and Frank it was
hard to get him out of the game, you know. So, uh,
he did well there last night. You know, I thought
he was was solid again and so, uh, you know
(04:22):
that's as you mentioned, that's that's a that's a really
nice story. And as we move forward, you know, we're
going to keep trying to get guys a little healthier
each day and uh and keeping it keep working on
who we are.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Rick, for those of mine have missed it, could you
share on specifically that Friday game with Chicago. I don't
know if maybe you found out Shepherd's status for the game,
but you know, Ethan Thompson was originally I think drilling
was some of your developmental guys over at the United Center,
and then you realize what it was going to look
like for you that night, and that he was going
to play important minutes for you, and you had to
(04:58):
make a call over there to say, hey, we got
to get Ethan Thompson off the floor. He's gonna play
some pivotal minutes for the big league tonight. How how
unique is that? And I guess what does that say about?
You know, this kid who just made his NBA debut
a few nights earlier.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
It's it's it's it's certainly not a typical year in
a lot of ways. And we knew, we knew Shepherd
wasn't gonna play. He wasn't on the trip. You know,
the question was, you know, uh, the plan was to
start Matthews, who had been playing well, and then you know,
kind of go from there. And it seemed to me
like the best thing to do would be to start
(05:35):
Matthews and then you know, we'll toss uh, we'll toss
Ethan in there. But you know what happened was we
had some of our interns come up to Chicago. You know,
we're working on getting Quintin Jackson back. One of the
things he needs to do is is play and so
after shoot around on Friday, a group of low minute
guys and interns, we're gonna play and you know that's
(05:59):
Tyalen Peter, that's as Quinton Jackson. I think Ethan assumed
he was part of the part of that group too,
which you know, which is good, you know, and look,
if he had played, it probably wouldn't have you know,
may not have made that big a difference. But as
we're on the bus headed back to the hotel after
shooting around, you know, I called over there to see
(06:22):
if he was playing, because my plan was, you know,
not going to be to start him, but to get
him in the game pretty early. And somebody said, yeah,
they know, they just started playing. I said, well, pull
him out because he's probably gonna play. He's gonna play
minutes tonight, I don't know how many. And so they
pulled him out, you know. So that was that was
kind of it. But that's that's how this year has
kind of been. There's been some unique aspects to it.
(06:48):
Challenges slash opportunities, and so, you know, one of the
one of the challenges is the injuries. And then a
great example of opportunity is is Ethan Thompson being the
right place at the right time.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Page has one four of six. Again, as Carlisle laid out,
there a little bit of time off. They'll have Philly
in Washington coming up on a Friday and Sunday, but
not a ton of game action here over the next
ten days or so. Coach, your next win will be
one thousand for your career. I think you'd become I
believe it's the eleventh coach in NBA history to reach
(07:21):
the Comma mark, if you will. Does that matter to
you at all? Does that mean anything to you? That number?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, I don't know. I you know, I it al
leayst feels like it's the best not to talk about
things like this and just and just try to keep going,
you know, but look it just it just means I've
I've been very blessed over the years with a lot
of great situations, great ownership, terrific players, a very supportive family,
(07:53):
all that. But I I, you know, I don't want
to put the horse before the card. I mean, this
year is a very good example of how, you know,
winning one NBA game is extremely difficult, you know, and
when you when and when you get extraordinary circumstances as
we've had this year. You know, putting the chicken before
(08:15):
the egg, or the egg before the chicken or whatever
it is, just doesn't just doesn't feel right.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Rick, to look at other guys in your ross. You
stepped up Garrison Matthews. I mean, the guy is an
all out shooter. How have you seen m perhaps find
his rhythm as of leat on it early on, you know,
once in the ball as well. But it seems like
he's gotten comfortable just being integrated into this offense with
obviously new teammates.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Well, you know, he's he's a guy that's a gunslinger.
He's gonna he's gonna play his game. He knows who
he is, he knows what's get, what gets him on
an NBA roster, and what gets him on the floor.
The challenge was that you know, he he had he
been I believe the last cut on New York it
was down to him and Landry Shammit. And the word
(09:02):
we got was that, you know, he had shot the
ball as well or maybe even a little bit better
than Shammitt. But there was just you know, the tie
breaker was just you know, the ultimate fit with the
team and all that kind of stuff. I don't really know,
that doesn't really matter. But he was sitting out, you know,
for probably the better part of a month. And you know,
(09:23):
we went through four or five different guys before we
got to him, and in fact, in fact, you know,
we had the one workout in Dallas where we worked
out three guys. Eventually all three guys ended up on
the roster. None of the three are on are on
the club anymore. And so we were cycling onto another
group of two or three guys, and we thought we
(09:45):
had a group of three that we're going to come
in for a workout, but one of them was headed overseas,
another one had some personal things going on, and the
timing wasn't right, and so you know, Garrison was the
only guy available. So we brought him in and we
needed shooting, we needed spacing, and the task was to
(10:07):
help him get shape, you know, and so Woyd Pierce
did a really great job, just you know, starting kind
of from scratch. You know, you can be at home
and you can be working out on your own and
and and that kind of stuff, but you know, it's
it's it's virtually impossible to simulate NBA practices in NBA
games and so it took, you know, it took a
(10:30):
good four or five days to get him to where
you know, he felt like his legs were there, et cetera,
et cetera. His first game was at Cleveland Whenever. That
was two and a half weeks ago. You know, he
went in the game, he got some clean shots off,
nothing went in, but the signs were good and it
kind of went from there. And so when he got
to the end of his first ten day and this
(10:53):
we're talking about a ten day team injury hardship contract.
I mean it's like a whole sentence, like you got
to say a whole set to describe what it is.
You know, you know, he hadn't made he hadn't made
a lot of shots yet, but it just felt to
us like, you know, he had done the work and
he was close, and so, uh, you know, we brought
him back. In the first game, he uh, he got
(11:16):
it going. And then you know, last night he hit
some big shots, had a four point play, et cetera.
And with him, you know, he's a guy you got
to count for on a scouting report. I mean you don't,
you don't account for him. I mean I think in
one or two years. In the last four or five
he's led the league in four point plays, et cetera,
et cetera. So an easy guy to like. You know,
(11:40):
he's just he's he's gritty, he's he's kind of you
know who we are, you know, right now as a team,
and so we're we're happy to have him on board.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
So you talked about bringing in guys for workouts, and
the Colts are or have actually brought in Philip Rivers
forty four, your old quarterback in for a workout. So
in your coaching or playing career, do you remember the
oldest player you played with or coached?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Oh? Boy, trying to think, well, you know, Dirk was
the oldest I think that I coached. I think he
was he was forty, you know, in his twenty first year. Look,
Jason Kidd was thirty eight when we won the championship
with him, and and there have been others, you know,
and you know, James Johnson I think was thirty seven
last year. Yeah, there there's been there's been guys like that.
(12:34):
But but I will say this, you not underestimate change Stiking.
I mean, I think it's pretty clear that he's the
best coach of quarterbacks. You know, really anybody's seen in
the last several years. I mean, what he's done with
a whole long list of guys and so to me,
the guys, the guys a master. I think he's done
(12:54):
an incredible, amazing job this year. There's a long way
to go in their season, you know, I know, things
things can things can look uh can look dreary at times,
but uh, there's an upbeat, upbeat fan base, you know,
super upbeat franchise added the Pacers and uh and we're
really told for them.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
That's Rick Carlile and pass have one four of six.
They beat Sacramento last night. They've got Philly coming up
this weekend. He's with us here on the Payloffs Liquers Hotline.
Did I hear you were at the Purdue game on Saturday?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I was, Yeah, I was. I was there with with
Sonny Beck from Becks Hybrids, which was which is a
c company. Sonny and and uh and his uh his
operation are supporters of driving Dish, which we're grateful for.
And he invited me to a game a long time ago.
(13:48):
And so yeah, I went up there and had amazing
seats one in an atmosphere at the I had the
privilege of sitting with Sunny on my right and Brian
Cardinal on my left. Okay, so there's two living legends. Now.
Cardinal not only not only is he a for due legend,
(14:09):
but Cardinal played for US on the twenty eleven championship
team in Dallas. And I'm going to tell you a
short story about Cardinals. So in game six out we
had played the series in the finals. In the fourth game,
we had to make some adjustments to our rotation because
of matchups, and so we started playing Brian Cardinal over
(14:32):
another more you know, more established household name type player. Well,
Cardinal was playing effectively. You know, his game is not
the most beautiful game in the world, but when you
look at his production and what happens as a winning player,
the guy's pretty amazing what he did in his career.
So we won game We won game four to tie
(14:55):
the series. We won game five. In game six at Miami,
we're up three two with a chance to close out
the series. Gets his second foul like five minutes into
the game, and so boom, here comes Cardinal. Now the
scorer is we're either down five or down seven. I
(15:16):
forget which Dirk had had a rough shot making night
to start the game, Vegas two fouls. Cardinal comes in
the game. We go from let's say it was down
five at the end of the first quarter, we were
up seven. Okay, we go plus twelve with Cardinal in
the game. Dirk comes back in the game. Now Dirks
(15:41):
is continuing. It's continuing to have trouble making shots. So
we go. We get into halftime and Cardinal of Dirt
were really good friends. And Cardinal's seat is right next
to Dirk's in the locker room. And as we walk in,
as the cooch staff, Cardinal was in there, and the
locker room is pretty quiet, but we still had a
two point lead, and Cardinals saying, this is great, man,
(16:05):
and he was calling Dirty Dirty Dirty Dirk was Dirt,
Dirk's uh nickname. He goes dirty, This is great. You
got all the misses out, bro, He's got to keep shooting.
This is gonna be great, This is gonna be awesome, man.
And so and so we we come in and we
we end up setting up a play to try to
get Dirk an open shot with JJ Ray has set
(16:26):
a pin down for him. He comes off, hits the shot,
in the second half. He may have missed one shot,
but he was great. But the Cardinals Cardinals impact on
that championship is is always going to be overlooked. But
he's He's one of the most resourceful players I've ever
(16:47):
been around. And when you walk around the Mackie Mackie
Center with him, you know, the guy, it's like it's
like walking around with Tom Brady, you know. I mean,
he's just uh, everybody every but he knows and loves
him and uh and and and I certainly.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Know why that some great, great stuff, absolute predue legend.
Brian Cardinal. Well, we'll end with this, coach, and as always,
we appreciate the time. I did have a chuckle a
couple of games ago. You said afterwards in regards to
timeouts that it would be great if you could buy
timeouts like vows and Wheel of Fortune? Are you more
Wheel of Fortune? Are you more Jeopardy?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Oh? Gosh, I like both, But yeah, I mean, look
those timeouts, you're not out of timeouts. They just they
just have a price, and so you gotta you just
gotta decide if it's worth it to take to take
one and and spend a you know, a technical free
throw work, give the team the possession back. And I
(17:51):
as I described after the game, and look, I don't
mean to make fun of it or make light of
it or anything like that. But if the other team
already has the ball and you feel like your guys need,
you know, a minute, fifteen seconds, you know, for whatever reason.
Maybe it's maybe maybe you just don't have a lot
of guys left on your roster that night, and they
(18:11):
you just feel like they need a little bit of
a break to finish the game. Whatever. You know, if
it's already the other team's ball, it's it's one technical
free throw. It's not it's not the end of the world,
you know. But I don't like doing it. I only
do it when it's that's when I feel it's necessary.
We didn't do it at all last year or the
year before. I don't think these have been extraordinary circumstances
(18:33):
this year. So sometimes sometimes it happens like that.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Picture an R. S T L N E. And you
up there getting some letters there and the end of
will fortune. I'm always invading what I would go with
their c D. Would you go with Val? Would you
would gotta go Val? I feel like you gotta go Val,
gotta go Val with this RS.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Well, some of the you know, there's like on Instagram,
there's there's some of these things where people are making
the wrong guesses at the at the butt and what
the puzzle says, and some of the stuff is you know,
it transcends, you know, the question of which value buy.
Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I need a documentary on us, say, the least Pacers
night off tonight, so I guess we could watch A
little Wheel Fortune, a Little Jeopardy. They'll be back Friday
six ers and Sunday afternoon. They've got the wizards inside
of gamebridge Field House coach, thank you as always. We'll
talk to you next week
Speaker 2 (19:23):
All right, guys, pickure
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