The Oklahoma City Thunder will host the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the NBA finals at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, June 5 on ABC and for local fans that need a reason to watch, the series will feature a pair of coaches with Central Mass. connections battling for the title.
Worcester Academy graduate Rick Carlisle at the helm of the Pacers and on the other bench will be Leominster native and former Holy Cross men’s basketball assistant Mark Daigneault as the head coach of the Thunder.
Carlisle coaching for second NBA title
Carlisle graduated from Worcester Academy in 1979 and played for legendary Worcester Academy coach Tom Blackburn and helped the Hilltoppers win the New England Prep School championship as a team captain. Carlisle, who went on to play at Maine and Virginia, was selected by the Celtics in the third round of the 1984 NBA Draft.
Carlisle was a reserve on the Celtics’ 1986 NBA championship team, and found success as a coach in the NBA, spending over 30 years on the sidelines – including over 20 as a head coach. Carlisle was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2002 with the Detroit Pistons and coached the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA title in 2011 – one of only 14 people to win the NBA title as a player and as a coach. He’s currently in his second stint with the Pacers as their head coach.
Carlisle is one of three Worcester Academy products that have experienced coaching success in the NBA, joining Donnie Nelson and Michael Malone – all of whom played at WA under Blackburn.
In his second stint at Indians, Carlisle helped guide the Pacers out of a rebuild, reaching the conference finals in 2024 before they were swept by the Celtics. Indiana returned to the postseason in 2025 as a fourth seed with a 50-32 mark, the first 50-win season for the Pacers since 2013-14, and Indiana will make its first NBA finals appearance since 2000.
Daigneault a rising coaching star
Raising the NBA Championship trophy would be the biggest accolade for Daigneault, who captained Leominster’s basketball team under Steve Dubzinski in 2002-03, his senior season. Daigneault has risen up the coaching ranks since he was a student manager for the University of Connecticut under Jim Calhoun and former Holy Cross coach George Blaney.
Daigneault, now 40, spent three seasons at Holy Cross under former coach Ralph Willard and spent four more at Florida before getting his professional break in 2014 as the head coach of the Oklahoma City Blue, the NBA G League affiliate of the Thunder. Under Daigneault, the Blue went 143-107 and advanced to the playoffs four times. Daigneault spent a season as an assistant with the Thunder under Billy Donovan before he got his chance as the head coach of the Thunder in 2020.
It was a process to get things steady at first for Daigneault, who saw his win total grow from 22 to 24 to 40 until the rebuild was completed in 2023-24, when Oklahoma City became the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs with a 57-25 mark that garnered him NBA Coach of the Year honors. He also coached the NBA All-Star game in 2025 and the Thunder set an NBA record for average margin of victory en route to a 68-win season.
Daigneault could become one of the youngest coaches to win a title. Last year Joe Mazzula won an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics and was 35 years and 353 days old at the time.
