Rick Carlisle lit into the NBA for its 'ridiculous' process in determining the Pacers were holding out healthy players


Getty Images

The Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz were recently hit with significant fines from the NBA for tanking, which has become one of the hot topics of debate this season with so many teams racing to the bottom ahead of a loaded 2026 NBA Draft class.

The Jazz were fined $500,000 for "conduct detrimental to the league" for benching star players regularly for the fourth quarter in an effort to lose, while the Pacers were fined $100,000 for "violating the Player Participation Policy" when they rested Pascal Siakam and two other starters for a game against the Jazz -- including Aaron Nesmith.

Unsurprisingly, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle didn't agree with the NBA's decision and went into detail on why during a radio appearance in Indianapolis on Tuesday. He told 107.5 The Fan about the league's call with the Pacers and how the NBA insisted Nesmith could have played without speaking to Nesmith or the Pacers' team doctors.

"Yeah, I put out a statement about it. I didn't agree with it," Carlisle said. "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. And during the interview process, I was not on it, but I heard details. We asked them if they wanted to talk to the doctors, our doctors about it, because it's something that was documented by our doctors and trainers. They said no, they didn't need to. They talked to their doctors who did not examine Aaron Nesmith, and we asked them if they wanted to talk to the kid, and they said no, they didn't need to. So this was shocking. This was shocking to me. And during the interview they also asked if we considered medicating him to play in a game when we were 30 games under .500. So I was very surprised. You know, obviously didn't agree with it. This is really the first time I've gone into any detail about it. But that was the deal. And so yeah, that was it."

If the league did suggest Nesmith should play without consulting the doctors who examined him and insisted he should've been medicated to play in a game, that does seem like a significant overreach on the part of the NBA.

It does need to be noted that Carlisle wasn't on this call and heard these details secondhand -- surely from someone frustrated within the Pacers organization about the outcome of the call -- but if that is indeed how the conversation went, that feels like a problem with the NBA's process that they need to address.

The NBA issued a statement on Tuesday denying Carlisle's claims.

"Coach Carlisle's description of the process that went into the decision to fine the Indiana Pacers is inaccurate," the league said in a statement. "An independent physician led the medical review. In addition, the Pacers' General Manager and the team's Senior Vice President, Sports Medicine and Performance were interviewed as part of the process. The Pacers confirmed that it had provided all of the information requested by the league and the team reported that an interview with Coach Carlisle or a team physician wasn't necessary."

The Nesmith injury being legitimate is certainly Indiana's most salient argument against the fine, but that seems like it was a more secondary concern to Siakam's absence for the NBA. Mostly, the Pacers ran into the issue of the league feeling significant pressure from the outside, including its media partners, to address tanking that feels more widespread and aggressive than we've seen in some time.

While Indiana is understandably not happy with being singled out and hit with a $100,000 fine, that game with the Jazz -- which they lost -- was critical to the lottery race and if you gave the Pacers some truth serum, I bet they'd tell you it was worth the 100 grand.

Source