Rick Carlisle bought 2011 NBA championship rings for these non-Dallas Mavericks
In this world is a small number of Dallas Mavericks NBA championship rings for people who played no part, or had no official title, with that 2011 team.
Don’t bother looking for them. They weren’t for sale, and you won’t see them on eBay.
From his own pocket, Dallas Mavs coach Rick Carlisle had a few extra championship rings made for people whom he felt put him in position to win that title. These were not cheapo knock-offs.
One ring reads, “Fitch” for the man who gave him his first job as an assistant NBA coach, Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Fitch. Fitch was the coach who led the Boston Celtics to an NBA title in 1981, led the Houston Rockets to the Finals in 1986, and is credited for introducing video and film work in the NBA.
Another ring reads, “Walsh” for the man who hired him to be an NBA assistant and eventually head coach, former Indiana Pacers GM/President Donnie Walsh. Walsh currently serves as a senior consultant with the Pacers.
Carlisle projects an image of humorless, calculated sternness that can be cutting. He’s also fiercely loyal and eternally grateful to those who gave him his shot.
The rings are a nice reminder that, if you’re in a good spot, you don’t forget the people who put you there.
Sitting in his office before the Mavs hosted the Pelicans on Wednesday night, Carlisle explained why he personally sprung for rings for the men who had no direct role in the success of that 2011 championship run.
“There were several people I consider very special people and I consider Donnie to be one of those very special people,” said Carlisle, whose Mavs host the Pacers Sunday evening. “[That ring] was a gesture of gratitude and respect. He was a man that went out of his way to really help me. He didn’t have to. He did it because he wanted to, and he felt it was the right thing.”
As to “which ring” Carlisle bought for guys like Fitch and Carlisle he won’t exactly say. There are various “levels” of rings.
Mavs owner Mark Cuban reportedly paid $1.2 million for the rings to be made. Players and coaches received the rings with the most diamonds, including 31 around the Mavericks logo. The “M” on the side features 15 diamonds.
There were rings made for staff members of the organization, and there was a friends-and-family version as well.
From the looks of the ring given to Walsh, he received the staffer version.
Because of Walsh’s personality, he is one of the least visible high-profile men in basketball. He is also one of the most respected and revered people in the NBA. You won’t find anybody who can say a bad word about the man.
Carlisle has been with the Mavericks for so long that most people forget his timeline before he was hired by Mark Cuban in 2008.
In the spring of 1997, he was a second assistant with the Portland Trail Blazers when his former Boston Celtics teammate, Larry Bird, asked him to be his assistant after becoming the head coach of the Pacers.
Carlisle met with Walsh, and the two hit it off.
“That whole experience was an education. There were difficult times early on because I was inexperienced,” Carlisle said. “Donnie was tremendously helpful as a mentor and helping me through some of that stuff.”
With Carlisle on the bench, the Pacers famously pushed Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls team to a seven-game series in the 1998 Eastern Conference finals. In 2000, the Pacers advanced to their first appearance in the NBA Finals, which they lost in six games to Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and the L.A. Lakers.
Bird stepped down after that season, and Carlisle, who had been an NBA assistant for a decade, was a finalist to be his successor. Carlisle’s rival for the job was Isiah Thomas, the Hall of Famer who had been an executive VP for the Toronto Raptors. He also had some private business ventures and famously had bought the Continental Basketball Association for $10. (It later filed for bankruptcy.)
Walsh hired Isiah, and that put Carlisle out of work.
In that “lost” season of 2000-01, he went into ... broadcasting. He was a commentator for about 40 games with the Seattle SuperSonics.
(Because his delivery is so monotone, and he’s not always a warm cup of cocoa, Carlisle doesn’t look like your prototypical color analyst. Watch his work with ESPN, or find the clips on YouTube calling Sonics games. He’s quite good at it.)
Carlisle landed his first NBA head coaching job in 2001 with the Detroit Pistons, and in consecutive seasons they won 50 games. He was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year, and led the Pistons to an appearance in the East finals.
He was fired after two seasons, almost the same time the Pacers fired Isiah.
Bird had been hired back by the Pacers to be their president of basketball operations. It was well known that Bird and Isiah were not buddies.
Bird fired Thomas, and almost immediately hired Carlisle. It was not Walsh admitting he had made a mistake in 2000 when he picked Isiah over RC, but it was close.
Carlisle had a .552 winning percentage in four seasons in Indiana, which included one appearance in the East Conference finals.
He is now in his 12th season with the Mavericks, and Walsh is now 79, and serves as a senior consultant for the Pacers.
For everyone who knows Donnie Walsh, he is a person so appreciated, liked and respected that people want to see him win an NBA championship ring of his own.
“Well,” Carlisle said, “he’s got one.”
Carlisle made sure of it.
