Rick Carlisle is a professional basketball coach and a former professional player. After graduating in 1984 Carlisle was selected 70th overall by the Boston Celtics in the 1984 NBA draft, where he played alongside Larry Bird. Under Celtics' coach K. C. Jones he won the NBA championship in 1986 and lost in the finals in 1985 and 1987.

As of 2020, Carlisle is one of only 11 people to win an NBA championship both as a player and as a coach. For the 2001–02 season, Carlisle was hired by the Detroit Pistons to be their new head coach. In two seasons as Pistons' head coach, Carlisle led the team to consecutive 50–32 records with Central Division titles and playoff appearances. He was named Coach of the Year in 2002. In 2008, he would be hired by president by Dallas Mavericks' president Mark Cuban. Carlisle won Dallas their first franhcise championship in 2011 in a historic run with Dirk Nowitzski to beat the Miami Heat in the finals. In 2017, Carlisle recorded his 700th win in a game against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Carlisle has also served as head coach of the Indiana Pacers. As of 2020, Carlisle is still the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks with a very promising team due to his leadership and rising star Luka Doncic. He is an avid pianist and private pilot, who as of September 2015 has logged nearly 200 hours flying his Cirrus SR22T single-engine light aircraft.