Rick Carlisle is entering the final year of a four year deal worth more than $18 million, his second four year deal with the Dallas Mavericks. Mavericks ownership has publicly been very complimetary of Carlisle and he is widely considered one of the best coaches in the NBA so they want to lock him up beyond this season. It is being reported that Carlisle and the Mavs are close to a five year extension, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.
Carlisle became the head coach of Dallas in 2008 and has been extremely successful since joining the franchise. In 2011 when he led the Mavericks to the NBA Championship over the Miami Heat in LeBron James' first season there, he became only the 11th person to win a title as both a player and a coach.
It has reportedly been circulating around the league for a while that the Mavericks had no plans to let Carlisle leave after this season despite entering the final year of his contract. President of basketball operations Donnie Nelson and owner Mark Cuban are extremely high on the head coach and Nelson even said that Carlisle can coach the Mavericks as long as he wants to. As of right now Carlisle is the third longest tenured coach behind Gregg Popovich of the Spurs and Erik Spoelstra of the Heat.
Carlisle turns 56 on Tuesday and between his three head coaching gigs he has won 619 games in 13 seasons. He had previous stints with the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons before coming to Dallas. In his coaching career Carlisle has only missed the playoffs twice, including just once with Dallas in his seven seasons there.
