Doyel: The story behind the story of Pacers coach Rick Carlisle defending ESPN Doris Burke

Indianapolis Star

11 hours ago

OKLAHOMA CITY – Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has said what he's said before Game 1 of the NBA Finals and now NBA analyst Doris Burke of ESPN is trending nationally on social media, which happens from time to time. Happens to a lot of people in the business, to some more than others. And some forms of social media being uglier than others – looking at you, Twitter or X or whatever we're calling you this week – it happens often to Burke. She trends online.
She's trending again early Thursday evening, after Carlisle said what he said before Game 1, only this is good. This is amazing. Rick Carlisle has just used his platform at the height of its reach – less than 90 minutes before Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals – to speak up for Burke, and to speak out against unnecessary online cruelty.
Social media is responding positively to Carlisle, and to Burke, and now her phone is blowing up. The noise is so loud it finds her inside that soundproof room at Paycom Center, home of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Burke is waiting with the rest of ESPN's broadcast team for Game 1, and you'll never believe who they're waiting to speak with at this exact minute, so I'll tell you:
They're waiting for Rick Carlisle.
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This is the schedule. NBA coaches speak to reporters about 90 minutes before tipoff – regular season, playoffs, that's the schedule. Then they have their pregame sit-down with the broadcast team. Then they coach.
Burke is sitting there, waiting for Carlisle, with no idea what has just happened. She's not on social media, are you kidding me? That cesspool of malice and misogyny? But there in that soundproof room, waiting for the head coach of the Indiana Pacers, her phone is buzzing, one jolt after another, one friend after another saying something along the lines of:
OMG
And:
I have a new favorite NBA coach!
And:
Rick Carlisle!
News: Carlisle defends ESPN's Doris Burke, laments leaked reports ahead of NBA Finals
Doris Burke is sitting there, and the information is coming to her in snippets of text messages, notes from friends. Tears are filling her eyes. This is not easy, OK? It's not easy putting yourself out there, day after week after month after year, and knowing – because we know, whether we look or not – that strangers are using our experiences as a punching bag.
Burke knows, generally, what's out there when the trolls gather at their social media garbage dump and turn their gaze toward the first woman to analyze NBA games for ESPN. And she knows, specifically, what Rick Carlisle has just done for her.
But no time to think about that. Time to work, and there's a knock on the door.
Rick Carlisle walks in.
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So, the reason Carlisle spoke up for Burke.
It was a story on The Athletic suggesting ESPN could be changing its NBA Finals broadcast booth next year, the kind of thing that happens in this and any other business. People get promoted or replaced. Most don't have to find out through the media, though, and in that small subset, most people don't have to grapple what is happening on social media: That strangers – call them what they are, incels and trolls – are celebrating the news.
So, the story went online within 24 hours of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. A scoop, we call that in my business.
Carlisle sees it, and understand, as longtime president of the NBA Coaches Association, Carlisle speaks up for people all over this sport. When the Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau shortly after being eliminated by the Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Carlisle was meeting with reporters the day before Game 1 of the NBA Finals and someone asked for his reaction.
'When I first saw it, I thought it was one of those fake AI (artificial intelligence) things,' Carlisle said. 'No way. There's no way possible.'
Carlisle went onto share his reaction, using words like 'shocked' and 'numb' and noting that the Knicks have had 'a lot of lean years. Thibs went in there and changed so much.'
This is who Carlisle is. Now, before you see what happened when he walked into the soundproof room at Paycom Center before Game 1 on Thursday night, you need to hear what he'd said about Doris Burke minutes earlier. This is how it looked, and sounded:
It's 90 minutes before tipoff. Carlisle walks into the room. Normally before a playoff game he's quiet, curt, wanting this pregame media obligation to end as quickly as possible. He has work to do, you know? Normally he sits down, looks around and waits quietly for someone to ask a question.
This time, before Game 1, he's not waiting quietly.
'Before we start…' is how he starts. First words out of Rick Carlisle's mouth to a roomful of national reporters. These are the next words:
'You know, when you get into this business, whether you're in coaching, whether you're a player, certainly media people have experienced scrutiny, broadcasting. It's a dynamic business. You're subject to things from unnamed sources. It's just part of it.
'So I saw the things that were leaked yesterday about Doris Burke. I just want to say a couple of things.
'She has changed the game for women in broadcasting. I have a daughter who just turned 21, who is in her second year at UVa. She's not in the basketball industry. But Doris is a great example of courage and putting herself out there.
"It was just so sad to see these reports leaked, really unnecessarily before such a celebrated event.
'Doris is a friend. I've asked her many times: 'Why don't you get into coaching?' She has such great knowledge.
'There are many women (now broadcasting NBA games) who she's paved the way for. I'll name a few of them: Sarah Kustok in Brooklyn who does a great job, Lisa Byington in Milwaukee, Kate Scott in Philadelphia, Monica McNutt, New York Knicks. Katy Winge from Denver, Zora Stephenson in Portland, Ann Meyers Drysdale in Phoenix, and Marney Gellner does some play-by-play for games with Minnesota.
'I don't know what's going to happen with all that stuff. But I just want to say thank you to Doris for the example that she has put forth for young women like my daughter and all these people who are changing the game.
"She has changed the game. That's the reason that she was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame a couple of years ago. I just want to say that in support of her.'
Soon he's done with us, and walking the hall of Paycom Center. He's heading toward Doris Burke. And as her phone is blowing up, one jolt comes from Rick Carlisle.
He's sending her a text message.
A story from 15 years ago:
At this point, Doris Burke has made a name for herself after analyzing all manner of basketball – NCAA men's and women's, WNBA – and now she's starting to blaze trails: First woman to commentate Knicks games on radio and TV. First woman commentator for a Big East men's game, and to be the lead analyst for a network's conference coverage. First woman to become a full-time national NBA analyst, first woman to call conference and NBA Finals on radio, then TV.
But it's not easy, being the first. This isn't the story from 15 years ago – it's coming – but just a few years back Burke was doing a podcast with Miami Heat forward Duncan Robinson, an unlikely NBA story himself after playing at Division III Williams College. They got to talking about their shared experience in the NBA.
'We had a long conversation about imposter syndrome,' Burke says. 'I fight it every it day. I've never pretended to play or coach in the NBA. I consider myself in many ways, a very well-studied fan. This game I'm so passionate about, it has shaped my life since I was 7. Yes, I played college basketball (she was an All-American guard at Providence in 1987) but I kind of go at it the way a fan does. When I was a sideline reporter, the questions I was thinking were: What would I have been thinking at home as a fan? What would I have wanted to know?'
So this happened about 15 years ago:
Doris Burke is preparing for an NBA game, and her broadcast team is meeting with both coaches about 75 minutes before tipoff – and after finishing, one coach stops on his way out. Doris Burke is telling me this story Thursday night, in the minutes after Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton has just beaten the Thunder in the final second of Game 1.
The Paycom Center is still buzzing wildly, not unlike her cell phone before the game, and Burke is standing at her courtside booth, removing all those microphones and earpieces. She's telling me about this meeting 15 years ago, and she's showing me what happened as that coach stopped on his way out the door:
'He grabs me by the shoulders and looks me in the eye,' Burke tells me, then shows me. 'And he says, 'Doris, you are doing an incredible job at this.''
That was how she met Rick Carlisle.
They've talked a lot over the years, work and otherwise, professional colleagues and real-world friends. That's why Carlisle texted her Thursday night before his visit with ESPN's broadcast team. He texted her something supportive, something along the lines of what he'd just told the media, and now Burke is confused.
'I'm thinking, 'Oh boy, he's not going to say something out there is he?'' she says. 'Shortly after I have that thought, multiple people hit me with texts about what he's just said.'
Burke is grateful, and the emotions are coming. And now there he is, walking into the soundproof interview room.
'He greets us all normally,' Burke says. 'I always hug him, but I just probably squeezed him a little tighter than normal, and I said: 'The article is just part of the business. I didn't really react to it, but I did react to your support of me and I can't thank you enough.'
'I was emotional,' she says, 'no question about it.'
Burke is telling me about it, and it's happening again.
'I've said this often,' she says, and she's pausing because the gratitude filling her heart is now reaching up into her throat and catching her words.
'Forgive me here,' she says, then continues. 'The players and the coaches, going back to my time covering every single thing I've ever covered – women's and men's college, WNBA, NBA – the players and coaches have been always my soft landing spot. They have always given me incredible support. And at various times I've expressed gratitude.'
Now she wants to be specific, about the supremely public gesture – more than that – Rick Carlisle had made for her before Game 1.
'Think about who Rick Carlisle is as person,' she says. 'He is about to coach Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and he takes the time to reach out to me to make sure I am OK. He is so passionate about the game and everyone who is part of the game. There is a reason he has led the (NBA) coaches association for as long as he has, a reason why he talks to players about getting into coaching and making them believe they can have an impact in this profession. There is a reason when he talks about officials, that he does it with incredible respect.
'It blows me away that in that moment in time, he has the heart to feel for another human being. So incredibly moving to me.'
They hug there in the broadcast room, Doris Burke thanks Rick Carlisle, and then it is time to work.
'We got down to the business of basketball,' she says.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar. Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.