May 3, 2008 - 6:18 PM
0 shoutsBRISTOL, Connecticut (Ticker) -- Former Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has emerged as the leading candidate for the vacant coaching position with the Dallas Mavericks, according to a report Saturday on ESPN.com.
The web site reported Friday night that Carlisle was the first to interview with the Mavericks on Thursday. Citing NBA coaching sources, the report said Carlisle had a second interview Friday.
He traveled to Texas to meet directly with Dallas owner Mark Cuban, according to the report.
Carlisle had interviewed with Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, who spoke with the veteran coach without Cuban.
But one day later, Dallas allowed him an audience with Cuban and franchise player Dirk Nowitzki, the report said.
As a result, ESPN reported that Carlisle is a "clear-cut No. 1 candidate, indicating that contract negotiations already are underway."
The report also said that Carlisle wants to bring Dwane Casey and Terry Stotts - two recent NBA coaches - to Dallas as assistants on his staff. But ESPN's sources said, "Nothing is done with anyone."
The job opened when former Dallas coach Avery Johnson was fired Wednesday after his team lost to the New Orleans Hornets in five games in their Western Conference first-round series.
According to the report, Cuban has said that his first choice for the position is Nelson, who seems reluctant to leave his post as head of personnel. The report said Nelson confirmed as much to ESPN Radio's Dallas affiliate in an interview Thursday.
"I think there's better candidates out there," Nelson said in the interview. "My job is to get the best guy that we can get out there.
"I'm on the list. I'm just the last guy and, hopefully, it doesn't get to that. ... I'm saying we'd have to get through a very, very long list in order for (Nelson to coach the team) and don't look for it to happen."
Carlisle currently is an ESPN analyst after spending six seasons coaching the Pistons and Pacers. He won 50 games in his two campaigns in Detroit - before being unceremoniously replaced by Larry Brown - and guided Indiana to the Eastern Conference finals in 2004.
Carlisle also reportedly has interviewed with Donnie Walsh - his former boss with the Pacers - for the New York Knicks' vacant coaching position.
Nelson would not reveal the rest of the candidates for the job, the report said, but did say that the Mavericks would "show some patience in our search because, after the first round, there could be some very good candidates available."
The Mavericks dropped the last four games of the 2006 NBA Finals after taking a 2-0 lead on the Miami Heat. They also were eliminated in the first round by the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors in 2007 after a 67-win regular season.
