Carlisle Still a Celtic

November 13, 1984

RICK CARLISLE DEFIES ODDS

At first, the idea of remaining throughout the National Basketball Association season to the springtime, when the Boston Celtics will enter the playoffs and try to defend their championship, would have been too ambitious. The plan at the very beginning of Rick Carlisle's professional career was just to last from day to day, from rookie camp to the time when the veterans appeared, for as long as the numbers game would allow him to stick around.



"My agent figured the longer I can stay in an N.B.A. camp," Carlisle said, "the better my shot would be in Europe. I didn't want to go to Chile to play, or Turkey. So I went into the thing and tried to make the best of it."

But when the Knicks make their first visit of the season to Boston Garden tomorrow night, Carlisle will still be there. There were 53 rookies on N.B.A. rosters at the start of the season. Compared with Eddie Wilkins of the Knicks, a sixth-round choice and the 133d selection over all, and Ken Bannister, a seventh-round pick and the 156th, Carlisle would seem to have entered camp with a no-cut agreement.

That is hardly what happened. The Celtics, as much as any organization, have an appreciation for the kind of aggressive awareness that Carlisle brings to his game. The discouraging fact, however, was that he was competing for a spot at guard on a championship unit that had five established guards and no injury problems.

"The right team," Carlisle said, "at the wrong time."

His status, it seemed, had been predetermined. Carlisle was the last player chosen on the third round, and, although that made his chances better than those of players like Wilkins and Bannister, it still meant that there were 69 choices ahead of him. So he was dangerously close to the draft's low-rent district, where the Boston selections come from Brandeis, Bentley, Framingham State and Merrimack, close enough for the Celtics to save transportation costs on players who will soon go home and tell friends that at least they wore the green shirt for a little while.

"The league's kind of telling you you don't belong," Carlisle said.

This was not the first time he had received such a message. At Lisbon Central High School in Ogdensburg, N.Y., he was ignored by Division I colleges. After one year at Worcester Academy, he went to the University of Maine for two years. He transferred to the University of Virginia, where he played for teams that reached a regional final and, last season, a national semifinal. But to the critics, despite last season's surprising success, Carlisle was part of the Supporting Cast, the group that took much of the blame because Ralph Sampson again did not win a national championship. "It was always 'the Supporting Cast,' " Carlisle said.

The slights did not end when his college career did. Somehow, Carlisle's intelligence and shooting ability did not merit consideration for the United States Olympic team. When the trials were held last April, and pro coaches, general managers and scouts flocked to Bloomington, Ind., for the opportunity to evaluate talent in a high- pressure situation, Carlisle was not there. The year before, he had not been invited to the tryouts for the Pan American Games team. "Those things are relatively irrelevant now," he said.

So he took his degree in psychology out into the world, not really sure what would happen. "You can always jump into a vice president's seat in a major corporation, I guess," Carlisle said, and smiled. At the start, his chances of a seat on the Celtic bench seemed about as far-fetched.

"If I figured my chances were slim," he said, "what was everybody else thinking?"

Carlisle took his plan to rookie camp: Don't be tentative. Be noticed. K. C. Jones, the coach, noticed. "He showed" - the coach looked for the word - "something."

Carlisle was invited to the regular training camp, where that something could be better defined. Jones saw that Carlisle could shoot, and pass unselfishly. He saw intelligence. "And also some scrap," Jones said.

"If you've got the best front line in the league," Carlisle said, "get them the ball, because that's where it belongs. Nobody told me that, but I'm not stupid. I can see."

He could also sense that an opportunity was growing. The salary dispute involving Gerald Henderson, his roommate in camp, created more chances for Carlisle. Finally there was a call from someone at a television station, asking to speak to Henderson. Carlisle told the caller that Henderson was not there. Soon the caller wanted to know if Carlisle had heard about the trade of Henderson to Seattle. Michael Young of Houston became the first top-round choice to fail to make a team in five years. Carlisle was still around, backing up Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge.

The night that the 15th green and white championship banner was raised to the rafters of Boston Garden, there were boos from the customary sellout crowd when Jan Volk, the general manager, was introduced.

But soon Carlisle was on the floor, doing all the things against the Nets that he had done when far fewer people were looking. He had 7 assists, and no turnovers, in his 20 minutes. He scored 8 points, and discovered a following.

Carlisle's plan now includes a stay in Boston in the springtime. "Legitimate employment," he said, "is out now."