Rick, Larry, and Dirk

Rick Carlisle played with Larry Bird in Boston and he coaches Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas, so he is often asked which player is better.

"There's no one guy who's better than the other," Carlisle said before the Mavericks played the Celtics Sunday night. "They're both great, but they're both very different. One thing I know, I still talk to Larry quite a bit and Larry is a big fan of Dirk's and vice versa. It's a cool thing."
Shortly after the Mavs hired Carlisle, he visited Nowitzki in his native Germany and he brought a DVD of Bird highlights.

"Some things that I really felt," Carlisle said, "would be good for him to develop on that right post is an area that Larry was so great at."

Nowitzki worked hard on those Bird moves with Maverick coaches.

"Their diligence working on that stuff," Carlisle said, "over there was one of things that led to him coming up with the one-legged fade, which now guys are copying."

Carlisle, a 1979 Worcester Academy graduate, played three seasons with Bird and has coached Nowitzki for six. Bird also hired Carlisle to coach Indiana and he coached the Pacers for four seasons.

The 6-foot-9 Bird averaged 24.3 points, 10 rebounds and 6.3 assists while shooting 49.6 percent, including 37.6 percent from threeland, in his 13 NBA seasons. The 7-foot Nowitzki has averaged 22.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists while shooting 47.6 percent, including 38.3 percent from threeland, in his 16 NBA seasons. Bird retired at age 35 and underwent back surgery. Nowitzki, who will turn 36 in June, is still going strong, averaging 21.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists.
"There are a lot of similarities between Nowitzki and Bird," Carlisle said. "The biggest thing is their drive to win, their meticulous approach toward preparation, work ethic and those kinds of things. A big difference is Dirk didn't have the number of Hall of Famers around him that Larry did, so in many ways he's carried over the course of his career a bigger load than almost any star player has in recent history. For that reason it just goes to show even more why this guy is one of the top 10 or 12 greatest players ever."

Carlisle believes Jared Sullinger, who slipped to the Celtics with the 21st pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, has proven a lot of teams wrong with his standout play this season.

"He's a very resourceful player," Carlisle said. "He's a great draft pick. A lot of people I think looked at his size and felt maybe that he wasn't that dynamic, but he's one of those guys that understands how to use leverage. He's extremely strong and the majority of people really overlooked his outside shooting ability. Brad (Stevens)'s got him shooting 3s and posting up and shooting mid-range and he's a big weapon for them. If you look at their wins in recent weeks, when they're winning games he's having big games."

Sullinger appreciated Carlisle's praise.

"In my eyes," Sullinger said, "I feel like I've still got a lot of proving to do, but it says a lot about Coach Carlisle and the respect he just gave me, that's big-time. A lot of people won't admit that they're wrong, but he did. So it's pretty big-time on his part."