With win over Nets, Rick Carlisle surpasses Red Auerbach on all-time coaching wins list

INDIANAPOLIS -- Rick Carlisle just finished discussing all that he wasn't thrilled with in the Pacers' 133-111 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night when he was reminded of the victory's significance in his coaching career.

The victory was Carlisle's 939th, which put him one ahead of Boston Celtics legend Red Auerbach's 938 and moved him into 12th on the all-time American professional basketball wins list.

Carlisle was clearly humbled by that distinction on a number of levels. For one thing, Auerbach's wildly successful coaching tenure was only part of his NBA legacy. He coached the Celtics to nine NBA titles, including eight straight to end his coaching career with a 938-481 overall record. He then made Bill Russell the head coach and moved full-time into the Celtics front office where he constructed teams that won seven more championships from 1966-1986. He was team president until he died in 2006, so 16 of the Celtics' 17 NBA titles -- which matches the Lakers for the most by any franchise -- were either coached or built by Auerbach (or both).

Carlisle, taken out of Virginia in 1984, was one of the players Auerbach drafted and Carlisle helped the Celtics win the 1986 NBA championship with Larry Bird. Auerbach also helped Carlisle get his start in coaching.

"I don't have a whole lot to say about it other than I'm really grateful to Red for drafting me in the third round almost 40 years ago," Carlisle said. "When you get drafted into the NBA, you get a shot. I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. My playing career led to a coaching opportunity and the Celtics lineage had a lot to do with it. Bill Fitch had been the Celtics coach. He was the guy who offered me my first coaching job off my last playing opportunity in New Jersey. Without Red, none of this probably happens. It's really hard to say how it all would have gone. That's an amazing man, an amazing person in the history of the game."

Carlisle said he met with Auerbach during the sabbatical year he took in 2000-01 after he worked under Larry Bird as an assistant with the Pacers from 1997-2000 and when he was trying to get his first head coaching job. Carlisle was hired by the Pistons in 2001 and is in his 22nd season as a head coach.

"I had a chance to go to Red's office and try to talk to him privately about things to really focus on as I was trying to make that jump," Carlisle said. "He had some very important observations about the game and where it was and things he thought would be important. He was dead on. I don't want to get into detail about it, but he was a man of great wisdom, one of the great competitors in the history of the sport, obviously. I think he still has more NBA championship rings than anyone in history if you count the ones he has as a coach, a GM and a president. This is a great opportunity to remind people of the standards he set. No one should ever forget Red Auerbach."

Carlisle so far has one championship to his name as a coach, with the Mavericks in 2011, and he's coached 1,765 games to Auerbach's 1,419. Still, Carlisle has taken three different franchises to the playoffs and at age 64, he's still in the game with a young team getting ready for its postseason run in three years. Bill Fitch is next on the list of coaches for him to catch at 11th with 944 wins, a mark he could pass this year. The 10 coaches above them have all won at least 1,000 games and if the Pacers continue to build he could join that club within a few years. Only San Antonio's Gregg Popovich, the all-time wins leader with 1,384, and Milwaukee's Doc Rivers (1,112) have more wins among active coaches.

"It's really cool to be a part of something special," All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton said. "I think the contributions that coach has made to the game will always be remembered. When he's done, there's going to be a lot more wins than what he's at right now. I'm just glad I can be a part of it and be with a brilliant basketball mind like that on a daily basis. I'm thankful for him and happy for him and hopefully I'm a part of many more moving forward."