When the Dallas Mavericks lost their long-time head coach, Rick Carlisle, it was seen as a huge loss and a bad sign for the organization.
But as time passes, and more light gets shed on what was going down behind the scenes, there is a sense that he’s moving on from the franchise may have been a good thing for all sides involved.
Besides his strained relationship with Luka, Carlisle was reportedly (at times) a difficult person to deal with:
(via Tim Cato of The Athletic)
While Carlisle adapted to Doncic, they still never got along. Even outward, public examples of Doncic showing him disrespect on the court are too many to list. Doncic deserves his own share of blame for this too, of course. But Carlisle was often difficult to deal with: lashing out verbally at non-star players he disliked or having angry outbursts directed at inanimate objects behind closed doors. All humans exist in shades of gray, and that side of Carlisle doesn’t invalidate touching stories that have also been shared about him in the past days or moments where he went out of his way to connect with a beat writer for his team. But in every corner of the Mavericks organization, there’s a shared sense of relief they no longer have to deal with his worst moments.
Nobody is calling Carlisle a bad person, but it seems that some of his actions may have alienated those within the organization. For whatever reason, he lashed out quite frequently, leading to a culture that sounds like it was very unhealthy.
On a new team, with a fresh start, Carlisle could help bring another team the title. As for his time in Dallas, it seems like it went on a little longer than it should have.
