THE NBA WANTS NEW YORK, NOT INDIANA, AND RICK CARLISLE WISELY SPOKE OUT

As media companies bid madly for 11 years of rights, the league wants no part of Indianapolis, Oklahoma City and Minnesota in the conference finals, which means officials should be closely watched

     Oklahoma City, despite choice grades of butcher’s beef, ranks 47th among American media markets. Minneapolis-St. Paul, despite Prince, wobbles in 15th place. Indianapolis, despite the Slippery Noodle Inn, rates 25th. The NBA might appear to have more serious issues, including a suspension of Patrick Beverley for only four games after firing a ball at fans and the second dismissal of Frank Vogel only 3 1/2 years after he won a title.

     But Rick Carlisle couldn’t have been a more accurate rascal, knocking home the league’s central business matter. Adam Silver doesn’t hate those three cities. He simply doesn’t want them among his precious four teams in the conference finals. At present, he’s in a mad death race to accrue as much money as possible from media companies, where ESPN will pay $2.6 billion a year and Amazon is bidding $1.8 billion a year while Charles Barkley’s TNT boss attempts to outbid NBC. The commissioner is looking at a prosperous life deep into the next decade, at around $7 billion annually. He does not want smaller markets joining Boston to display his wares.

     He wants New York.

     So when Carlisle furiously complains about unfair officiating, as the Indiana Pacers return home with a 2-0 deficit in the second-round series, don’t call it flyover whining. When the coach sent a massive number of plays from those games — 78, for league review — his intent should be applauded. He honestly thinks the NBA wants the Knicks and Celtics playing inside lunatic arenas for a Finals berth, and that ESPN — stuck in a Connecticut field between Madison Square Garden and TD Garden — thirsts for the broadcast experience. Do you think he’s wrong? You’re living in 2024.

     “Small-market teams deserve an equal shot," Carlisle said. “They deserve a fair shot. No matter where they're playing.”

     And he expects the Knicks to study the film before Game 3 on Friday. “I can promise you that we're going to submit these. New York can get ready. They'll see ‘em too,” he said. “I’m always talking to our guys about not making it about officials, but we deserve a fair shot and it’s just not. There’s not a consistent balance, and that’s disappointing. Give New York credit for the physicality they’re playing with, but their physicality is rewarded and ours is penalized, time after time. I’m just really disappointed. You’ve gotta make a stand for your guys. You’ve gotta stand up for what’s right and what’s not right, and that was it.”

     To think Carlisle was ejected with two technicals, when he pounced in the face of Marc Davis and screamed, recalls what happened when the same official was waylaid the other night by Denver’s Michael Malone. Nothing was called. Why Carlisle? Well, the Pacers are a fun team led by Tyrese Haliburton, but they aren’t the Knickerbockers and their bonkers celebrity crowd as New York and Boston media wage war. He even spoke about a social-media blitz involving Haliburton, who was shoved in the back by Josh Hart. “It’s all over Twitter right now because a few people have showed it to me and (referee) JB DeRosa is looking right at it. You can see he has vision of the play and he shoves Tyrese into the corner and there is no whistle,” Carlisle said. “Right in the back. That was shocking and there were many others.”

     And why was an original double-dribble call against Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein changed to an inadvertent whistle? This is why Carlisle thinks the opposing coach, Tom Thibodeau, gets major breaks. “It looks to me like he went out there and argued it, and they changed it. That’s what it looked like,” he said. “And that’s small beans compared to everything else.”

     Anyone who watches postseason ball knows coaches ache for a future edge, starting with two games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. But this episode feels real, given the massive media negotiations and a missed call in Game 1, when the league said a late kicked ball shouldn’t have been called against Indiana’s Aaron Nesmith. The Knicks, of course, took the lead for good with 40 seconds left on a three-pointer by Donte DiVincenzo. Later, Myles Turner was called for a hokey offensive foul when DiVincenzo hit the floor like a Broadway stunt man. “Just in my experience in this league, I think it’s best when you let the players decide the outcome of the game,” Turner said. “I think it’s unfortunate that it happened ... called it an illegal screen. It’s the playoffs. I think DiVincenzo did a good job selling it.”

     With Jalen Brunson becoming New York’s favorite postseason athlete since — who? — the league and ESPN smell what’s coming. A Boston-Indiana series won’t draw much. A Timberwolves-Thunder series won’t draw either, though Anthony Edwards and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will luminate. The Nuggets won’t survive their current series, with Jamal Murray blowing off questions about his tossed heat pad while Nikola Jokic receives heat from Shaquille O’Neal about winning his third MVP trophy.

     “I want you to hear it from me first,” Shaq told Jokic. “I thought that SGA should've been the MVP. That's no disrespect to you, but congratulations.”

     “Thank you, Shaq. We don't judge people here, so that's fine, it's your opinion," said Jokic, smiling. “I’m joking. ... There are a lot of players that deserve it.”

     This is why the NBA needs New York. Carlisle is 64 and has been around long enough to get it. Only Barkley thinks otherwise, just to rankle a city the way he angered San Francisco through the years. “Y’all ain’t that good in New York. Come on man, you’re overrated,” he said. “Just ’cause y’all make good pizza and good bagels.”

     I’m not sure what they make in Indianapolis, other than shrimp cocktail at St. Elmo. The league would prefer to pass.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.