Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has lifetime memory from brief stint with Albany Patroons
Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle already owns two NBA championship rings. He earned his first as a player with the 1985-86 Boston Celtics and his second for coaching the 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks.
There’s another piece of jewelry he treasures. It’s the 1987-88 Continental Basketball Association title ring he received with the Albany Patroons. The Patroons gave him the prize even though Carlisle played just six games for them in November 1987 before signing with the New York Knicks.
“I think one of the reasons they gave me a ring, even though I only played six games, is because I kept in contact with the team,” Carlisle said in ‘The Minor League Mecca,’ the 2018 documentary about the history of the original Patroons directed by Brendan Casey. “I stayed interested in the team because I was (interested). It was very special to me. I think they knew that. I always appreciated this.”
Carlisle will continue his pursuit for a third NBA championship on Wednesday, when the Pacers host the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of the NBA Finals in Indianapolis. The series is tied at 1-1.
In the documentary, Carlisle held up his Patroons ring next to his Celtics ring, which are surprisingly similar in size.
“This is the CBA ring, which looks pretty damn good,” said Carlisle, before raising his Mavericks ring, which dwarfs both of them.
“I don’t know that this could have been possible without the experience I had in the CBA,” Carlisle added.
He played his first three NBA seasons in Boston as a third-round draft pick out of Virginia in 1984, before the league reduced to two rounds five years later.
He signed with the Patroons just a few days after the Celtics released him in 1987. In Albany, Carlisle was reunited with Patroons star Derrick Rowland. They knew each other from the North Country. Carlisle grew up in Lisbon, located on the Canadian border. Rowland, a Long Island native, played in college at Division III SUNY Potsdam, about 20 miles from Lisbon.
Carlisle and Rowland trained together and played in the Empire State Games. Rowland, now the coach of The Basketball League’s Patroons, said they were last in touch three years ago.