Pacers Coach Rick Carlisle Opens Up About Medicate and Play Situation Plus Indiana’s $100,000 Fine
The NBA’s commissioner made it crystal clear this season that the league planned to crack down on franchises unnecessarily sitting or resting players. However, members of the Indiana organization believe that they are being unfairly punished and targeted. On Tuesday, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle opened up about a medicate and play situation involving one his players; plus shared his thoughts on Indiana’s recent $100,000 fine.
Back during mid-February the NBA fined the Jazz and Pacers for conduct detrimental to the league. Utah was fined $500,000 for removing two of their top players (Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr.); before the beginning of the 4th quarter in their games against the Magic and Heat. Indiana was fined $100,000 for violating the player participation policy. Apparently, due to them holding out Pascal Siakam and two other starters for their February 3 game against the Jazz.
During The Fan Morning Show, Carlisle recounts recent events and details. He mentions that one of the players the league inquired about couldn’t even hold a basketball. Regarding this player, Rick reveals,
“There was a league lawyer that was doing the interview that kind of unilaterally decided that Aaron Nesmith, who had been injured the night before and couldn’t hold the ball, should have played in the game, which just seems ridiculous.
We asked them if they wanted to talk to (our) doctors about it because it was something that was documented by our doctors and trainers and they said no they didn’t need to, they talked to their doctors that did not examine Aaron Nesmith. We asked if they wanted to talk to the kid and they said they didn’t need to.
During the interview (with the NBA), they also asked if we considered medicating (Aaron Nesmith) to play in a game when we were 30 games under .500.”
Pacers Coach Rick Carlisle Opens Up About Medicate and Play Situation Plus Indiana’s $100,000 Fine
As one can see, there is a slippery slope developing in professional basketball. There is a stop tanking campaign emerging; but there are always exceptions. Some players and teams may not be tanking; while others may actually bend the rules. How the league and various franchises work out a solution that satisfies player safety and health will be something to certainly keep an eye on.
However, in the Pacers case, Carlisle does not seem like a happy camper. Yahoo Sports, Tom Haberstroph summed up Rick’s sentiments by stating, “Rick Carlisle had very strong words for how the NBA office handled the medical examination, calling it “ridiculous” and “shocking.”
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