The former NBA player made a strong claim about Rick Carlisle by picking him with a five-time championship-winning coach in one aspect of the game.
Rick Carlisle himself has a championship of his name as part of the Dallas Mavericks, but is approaching adding another as part of the Indiana Pacers.
His team is currently leading the conference final 3-1 by abolishing the New York Knicks.
Stephen A. Smith had some big thanks to Carlisle as he called him the “Hall of Fame” caliber coach.
He took over the Pacers’ reins in 2021 and then made them appear in multiple conference finals, but now he plans to take his team to the first NBA final since 2000.
Carlisle was an assistant coach for the Pacers’ side who took part in the NBA Finals in 2000, and one of the important players on that team was Stephen Jackson.
Jackson didn’t win a championship with the Pacers, but he made a huge impact and earned the league’s respect for his team’s performance.
He then secured a move to the San Antonio Spurs, where Jackson played under Greg Popovich, winning the championship in 2003.
But in a recent episode about The Dan Patrick Show, he said Carlisle has more IQ than the five-time championship-winning head coach.
Jackson said: “Pop is the best coach I’ve played, but the best IQ and smartest IQ are definitely Rick Carlisle.
“X and O are not even close.”
Jackson was part of the Pacers team that was malignant in the Palace Incident, and not only was he interrupted, but their key player, Ron Artsest, missed the entire season.
However, they still managed to reach the second round of the playoffs, and Jackson praised it for Carlisle’s coaching.
“When we got into the brawl, I really saw it, and I missed half the season and Ron missed the entire season.
“It was basically because of Rick’s coaching. He prepared to know everything about the other teams, so we even got into the second round after everything that had passed that year was coached by Rick and Mike Brown,” Jackson added.
The Pacers boast one of the best offenses in the league, and a lot of credits for that have to go to coach.
Not only did he make the most of Tyrees Halliburton, who made some special records this postseason, but he was also special in his work with players like Andrew Nenbird and Aaron Nesmith.
In addition to their great offensive game, the Pacers have proven that they are more than they can play defense.
The close-out game is always difficult, but Pacer has one of the most experienced coaches in the game, and also has momentum to close the series.
Not many chose the Pacers as a team coming out of the East, but they surpassed everyone’s expectations for their second year running.