Upon becoming 15th-winningest coach in NBA history, Rick Carlisle deeply grateful to the man he passed: – The Dallas Morning News

The moment came and went quietly, no doubt the way Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle preferred it.

Seconds after the final buzzer sounded on Dallas victory over Cleveland Friday night, live video of Carlisle exiting the court briefly was shown on the American Airlines Center video board and public address announcer Sean Heath informed fans that Carlisle had become the 15th winningest coach in NBA history.

Then Heath announced that in the same game Luka Doncic had become the fourth-youngest player in NBA history to reach 5,000 points. And that the Mavericks had clinched the fourth division title in franchise history.

Though the nights Carlisle Moment rather quickly passed and most of the Mavericks collective attention turned to the regular seasons final five games and playoff positioning, there no doubt was quiet reflection for Carlisle not only because of the attainment, but the coach he passed on the victory list.

Carlisles record of 833-687 moved him past Lowell Cotton Fitzsimmons 832-775 mark. Fitzsimmons 21-season career, which like that of most coaches occasionally was interrupted by firings, spanned from 1971 to 1997. Carlisles 19-season head coaching career spans from 2002 to present.

Though their head coaching careers didnt intersect, Carlisle, when asked Friday evening for his favorite Fitzsimmons memory, revealed that colorful raspy-voiced Cotton was instrumental in Carlisle getting his first head coaching position.

Carlisle had been an assistant at New Jersey (1989-94), Portland (1994-97) and Indiana (1997-2000), but when Larry Bird stepped down as the Pacers head coach in 2000 Isiah Thomas edged out Carlisle for the job despite Bird recommending Carlisle.

I decided to take a year away from coaching to study the game, spend time with a lot of great basketball people, learn, Carlisle said. I ended up with a broadcasting job with the Seattle SuperSonics, which was a great experience, too, because Nate McMillan ended up taking over the team that year, so I saw how a great young coach like Nate took over a difficult situation and turned it into a positive.

Enter Fitzsimmons, with a phone call that ultimately would change Carlisles life. Fitzsimmons was overseeing the Phoenix Classic, a tournament for draft-eligible college players. Fitzsimmons asked Carlisle to coach one of the teams.

It was coaching three games with a team, Carlisle recalled. You get a team, coach them for two practices and maybe play three games.

Carlisles team went 2-1.

And it turned out that that was a really important opportunity for me, Carlisle said. Why? Because in attendance was Pistons president Joe Dumars, who in 2001 would hire Carlisle as Detroits head coach.

He [Dumars] told me that actually watching me coach in that setting as a head coach was very helpful for him to visualize me as an NBA head coach.

Fitzsimmons died in 2004 at age 72, of lung cancer.

I thanked him many times in the ensuing years in thinking of me in that opportunity, Carlisle said. Hes just a guy that would light up a room when he would come in. He had such a magical magnetic personality. When he passed a few years ago it was a great, great loss but so many people have many amazing fond memories of him.

Perhaps now you understand a little more about why Carlisle is the president of the NBA Coaches Association and why he never misses an opportunity to pay it forward. A notable example occurred early last month, when Carlisle tested positive for COVID-19 (it turned out to be a false-positive) and proudly watched from his New York hotel room while Mavericks assistant Jamahl Mosley coached Dallas to a victory over the Knicks.

How big of a deal is cracking the top 15 in coaching victories? Understand that of the fellow members of the top 15 who have won at least one NBA championship, the only ones who are not in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame are ex-Mavericks coach Dick Motta and active coaches Gregg Popovich, Doc Rivers and Carlisle.

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Upon becoming 15th-winningest coach in NBA history, Rick Carlisle deeply grateful to the man he passed: - The Dallas Morning News