Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle took air this offseason in ways that his high-flying rookie Dennis Smith Jr. wishes he could, despite throwing down some serious windmill dunks in practice.
Good old Rick doesn't have the hops he once (maybe) did as a young player in the league, but is instead a licensed pilot and owns his own plane — the N612RC — a plane in which he has logged over 180 hours despite only flying it in the offseason and during the All-Star break, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
Coach/pilot Rick Carlisle: "Two high-flyers (in a matter of speaking)" pic.twitter.com/yomo8GON5w
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) July 28, 2017
While he is comfortable flying it by himself, he hasn't flown any of his family members or Smith, despite having three available seats for company.
Article Continues Below“In due time, they'll come up,” said Carlisle. “But I'm going to make sure I do all the work and have the appropriate ratings. It'll happen when it happens… I haven't determined that it's the right time yet.”
The rookie got to know his new coach in ways most haven't seen him before, giving him a small taste of the very unlikely hobby that he's pursued through the years.
Smith will instead choose to take air in a much less-risky way, hoping to make someone a part of his posters come the start of the regular season.