Carlisle Canned.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Rick Carlisle was fired Wednesday after four tumultuous years as Indiana Pacers coach, following a season in which the team failed to make the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

The Pacers finished the season 35-47, their worst since 1988-89. Indiana was 29-24 shortly after the All-Star break, but lost its next 11 games to fall out of the top eight in the Eastern Conference. A loss to Detroit on April 3 clinched the Pacers' first losing season since 1996-97.

Carlisle's tenure was less about wins and losses and more about his struggle to manage a cast of talented, but volatile, characters. Carlisle always will be linked with Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson, the two most prominent players in the 2004 brawl between Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans. That brawl started the unraveling of a team that was expected to make several title runs.

Team president Larry Bird said Carlisle has an option to return to the team in another capacity.
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Stinks to be Carlisle, you work with an awful GM like Larry Bird, who builds you a team of rejects. Then trades for the two most overpaid white guys in the league.

As a Pistons fan. I would like to see Rick get re-hired by Detroit if Flip fails us miserably this post-season.

Carlisle is a solid coach, a very solid coach. I think the third time will be a charm for him.

Look at the crap he had to deal with in Indy. He never had the same lineup for more than 15 games in a row probably, and when he did, his team was almost in the Finals.

Indiana is garbage, sorry Pacer fans.

Jermaine O'Neal gave up on you, not Rick Carlisle.