Rick Carlisle has been around long enough to know the NBA doesn’t stand still.
The Indiana Pacers head coach, now guiding a young squad into the Finals, was drafted in 1984 — the heart of the Larry Bird–Magic Johnson rivalry that helped reshape the league in 1980's.
He’s seen the baton passed from Bird and Magic to Michael Jordan in the 90s, then to Kobe Bryant in 2000s and LeBron James and Stephen Curry from 2010s onwards.
But when asked this week about the NBA’s next “face of the league,” Carlisle didn’t flinch.
“Time will tell. But LeBron James and Steph Curry — those guys are still the gold standard, really. They’re still ‘IT,’” the 66-year-old told reporters on the eve of Game 1 of the championship series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
For the past two decades, James and Curry have not only defined winning but shaped how basketball is played, marketed and consumed. They’ve become more than players — they are institutions.
Yet with James turning 41 by the end of the year and Curry having turned 37 three months ago, the league is naturally in transition.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the 26-year-old MVP who has led the Thunder to their first Finals appearance since 2012, is seen by many as a potential heir.
So is Carlisle’s own star, Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton — a magnetic playmaker with elite vision and a savvy, self-aware sense of leadership.
Add Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Anthony Edwards, Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum and even Victor Wembanyama to the mix, and the league isn’t lacking for generational talent.
Still, Carlisle cautioned that crowning a new face of the league isn’t that simple.
“There are always going to be stars. But identifying with teams may become more of a significant thing than just the star aspect of it,” the 2011 champion coach with the Dallas Mavericks insisted.
He continued: “The league is so dynamic. It can change in a moment, much like a playoff series can.”
Carlisle also suggested that the idea of one singular face may be giving way to a different kind of identity. He pointed to a growing emphasis on team structure and the emotional expression of the game — a style embodied by both his Pacers and their Finals opponent in Oklahoma City.
“It’s such a dynamic business and it’s so quickly changing. I just think the league is so healthy right now because there are so many great young players that have personality, that are such great promoters of the game simply by virtue of how they play — with their joy, with their love,” Carlisle noted.
“It’s moving away from an isolation league to really more of a team-type game. Oklahoma plays that way. We try to play that way,” he added.
