Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has always had to take the winding road to NBA success
Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The drive between the little upstate New York towns of Lisbon and Ogdensburg, by Rick Carlisle's recollection, would take about eight minutes. In that part of the world, in the St. Lawrence valley just a few miles south of Canada, that's like going next door.
That ride is probably a reason why Carlisle — the Indiana Pacers coach — is at the NBA Finals for a sixth time as a player, assistant coach and now a head coach.
The story behind the ride is this: Carlisle went to Lisbon Central, a school where everyone from kindergarten through 12th grade was housed in the same building — that's quite common in that part of the world — and was the first 1,000-point scorer there. But if he wanted to watch NBA games, the family had to hop in the car and head to Ogdensburg.
The reason? There was no cable TV in Lisbon at that time, and the aerial antenna at the family home couldn't pick up any NBA games.
'We had a thing, you turn the rotor in the direction and the antenna would move and it would either go towards Kingston, Ontario, or Watertown, New York,' Carlisle said. And back in those days we only got the CBS affiliate, and they didn't have the NBA back in those early years. But we got Hockey Night in Canada."
And yes, Carlisle played hockey in those days. He just liked basketball more. That's why that eight-minute drive would get made, over and over, so he could see NBA games.
Fast forward to now, and Carlisle — who won a title with Boston as a player and with Dallas as a head coach — is four wins away from another championship.
'I can't say enough about him and the respect I have for him,' said Mark Daigneault, whose Oklahoma City team will face off with Carlisle's Pacers when the NBA Finals start Thursday night. "I think the whole is better than the sum of the parts. Almost consistently across every year he's ever coached, the team is better than their sum. I think that's a reflection of him.
'His teams play a clear identity, stay in character through all the ups and downs. That identity has changed over the years based on his teams, the league trends. But his teams are always in character. This year is certainly no exception.'
There are parallels between Daigneault and Carlisle. Both are incredibly smart. Both might lean toward a dry sense of humor. And Daigneault isn't exactly a big-city guy, either. His hometown — Leominster, Massachusetts — has a population of about 43,000, which makes it an absolute metropolis compared to Lisbon and its population of about 4,300.
Big city, small town, no matter one's roots, Daigneault said everyone feels the same way getting to the finals.
'Every single person that's participating in this, whether it's coaches, players, staff, there was a time in their life when this was just a dream,' Daigneault said. 'This wasn't a foregone conclusion for them. That's every player that's participating. There's a time when they were in their driveway shooting 1-on-0 with a basket counting down the end of the game. That's what makes it so special to participate in.'
Carlisle was close friends with Hal Cohen, who played at nearby Canton Central and was part of Jim Boeheim's first class at Syracuse. Cohen was one of the first players from that part of the world to play basketball at a Division I level; he showed Carlisle the way. Carlisle went to prep school for a year before starting his college playing career at Maine, his lone Division I offer.
He wound up eventually transferring to Virginia and playing alongside Ralph Sampson. 'Changed my life forever,' Carlisle said.
Carlisle got drafted in the third round in 1984 — 'a round that no longer exists in the draft,' Carlisle says — and played in the league for parts of five seasons, with a brief stint with the CBA's Albany Patroons thrown in there as well. He was with the Patroons not long after one of their more successful coaches had left; that coach's name was Phil Jackson, who went on to win 11 NBA titles.
The road here, just like that road between Lisbon and Ogdensburg, was more than a bit winding.
'Had great coaching and a lot of things that were very fortunate,' Carlisle said. 'I ended up getting drafted by Boston in a round that no longer exists in the draft. A lot of things fell my way. But I worked hard, too.'
___
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San Francisco Chronicle
24 minutes ago
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Cam Smith's meteoric rise to the majors: A story of dedication and discipline
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The pair often attended spring training and minor league games in Jupiter, Florida. The young Smith was way more into the arcade on the concourse than watching the games. 'It's always funny to talk about how I wasn't too interested and now I do it for a living,' he said. By high school, he'd grown to love the game but still wasn't sure he could make it a career until scouts started coming to his games. 'Then I realized that I can play this for a long time,' he said. His first offer was from Florida Atlantic, and when the longtime Florida State fan got his second offer from the Seminoles, he immediately committed to them. After his freshman season at Florida State, his advisers recognized that he needed help to stop chasing pitches, correct some swing-and-miss issues and adjust his high groundball rate before playing in the Cape Cod League. They knew it was his chance to make an impression with scouts and raise his draft status. To chart his progress, Smith, Capista and Romano met on weekly FaceTime calls where they'd review his at-bats and emphasize the importance of trusting his judgment at the plate. Smith stopped chasing sliders and swinging at weak-contact pitches, and it led to an increase in walks and decrease in strikeouts. He became the top hitter in the league, batting .347 with 14 doubles, four triples, six home runs and 26 RBIs. That propelled him to a great sophomore season where he earned second-team All-America honors and led the Seminoles to the College World Series to help his draft stock rise. A rapid rise through pro ball After being drafted by the Cubs, Smith played 27 games of A ball. It was there that he really heated up, hitting a home run in six consecutive games for Myrtle Beach. That was another boost to his confidence. 'Yeah, 100% because I didn't know I could ever do that,' he said. Capista wasn't surprised at the success Smith was having because of the kind of person he is. 'When you get the response and the feedback of someone like Cam, you quickly learn that he's built different, he's wired different,' Capista said. 'It's so cliche to say you want to be great ... but when you hear it and you get to know someone like Cam, you quickly learn that he means it, and he does the work, he does the stuff in the background that no one sees.' Before spring training Smith visited the Maven Baseball Lab, where they helped him refine his swing path so he could take another step forward. 'I could see a video that my bat was getting pretty flat early before I would go to swing and I'm just glad I had somebody like them to explain it to me,' he said. 'Break it down like: 'Hey, you're dumping the water out of the cup too early. Let's keep that upright a little longer.'' After the trade to Houston, Smith quickly impressed. He hit .342 with four homers and 11 RBIs this spring while navigating the move from third base to right field to make the opening day roster. 'He was not overwhelmed by the spots we put him in,' manager Joe Espada said. 'He's mentally tough. He can deal with the obstacles and ups and downs of a season.' Now that Smith's made it to the majors, he's hoping to inspire others like him to do it. Smith, whose mother is white and father is Black, hopes to get more Black kids involved in the game. 'I didn't really have somebody to look up to or who was able to talk to me about being African American and playing baseball,' he said. 'So, I wanted to be that influence on other young players to inspire them to know that it's possible and to know that they can do it.' He doesn't have a relationship with his father, but he has connected with his paternal grandmother, an aunt and other relatives on that side of the family in recent years. His mother said not knowing a lot about them as a child spurred him to learn more about his culture and who he was. 'It's more of just wanting a piece of that and wanting to just cherish that side of him,' she said. 'Even though he didn't have that in his life, that's still part of who he is.'
