Current Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has a number of connections to the city of Boston and the Boston Celtics. He began his playing career with the Celts, playing four seasons with the team. winning the 1986 NBA championship as a reserve in the process. He went to high school in Worcester, and Carlisle coached alongside Larry Bird as an assistant in the 1990s as well.
Back in the city to play the team that drafted him out of the University of Virginia as Boston faced Indiana, the now-head coach of the Pacers was asked by the Celtics Wire about the homecoming. He has previously said playing for Boston “changed his life.”
