Metta Sandiford-Artest on Pacers’ NBA title chances, Tyrese Haliburton’s rise and why Rick Carlisle reminds him of Nas (Exclusive)

Nearly 14 years after lifting the Los Angeles Lakers to an NBA title with an exceptional Game 7 performance against the Boston Celtics, Metta Sandiford-Artest showed enthusiasm about the latest Finals heroics.

After watching Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton make a game-winning shot against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Sandiford-Artest likened Haliburton’s clutch plays to those of former Pacers teammate Reggie Miller. After witnessing the Pacers execute another late-game comeback, Sandiford-Artest compared Pacers coach Rick Carlisle to hip-hop artist Nas for their enduring longevity and innovation.

Nothing will match Sandiford-Artest’s behavior after helping the Lakers win Game 7 in the 2010 NBA Finals with 20 points, five steals and a key 3 that gave the Lakers a 79-73 lead with nearly a minute remaining. Afterwards, Sandiford-Artest publicly thanked his psychologist for their therapy sessions, the late Kobe Bryant for passing him the ball in a clutch moment and proclaimed excitement over seeing himself on a Wheaties box.

Nonetheless, Sandiford-Artest sounded giddy during a wide-ranging interview with Sportskeeda about the Pacers’ playoff run nearly 21 years after helping the Pacers advance to the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals.

In part two of our interview, Sandiford-Artest spoke about Haliburton’s growth, Carlisle’s coaching and the challenges of facing the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 East Finals. In part one of our interview, Sandiford-Artest talked about his public campaign for the New York Knicks’ head-coaching job.

Editor’s note: The following one-on-one conversation has been edited and condensed.

Metta Sandiford-Artest Exclusive

What do you think of Indiana’s run to the Finals?

Sandiford-Artest: “I think the Pacers are going to win it all. I think OKC is great. I think there are times that SGA is better than Michael Jordan. Not all the time. I’m just saying, ‘At times.’ Not all the time. That’s totally different words. SGA is incredible. So it’s going to be tough. But I think it’s two well-matched teams. Oklahoma is the real deal. I respect them. They are incredible. But I think the Pacers will win in six. They look so good. Haliburton is playing incredible. Pascal is going to be a Hall-of-Famer. He is really good. The Pacers have a real No. 2 and a real No. 1. They’re also playing as a team.

I was not No. 1 when I got to the Pacers. If it wasn’t for Rick Carlisle, quite honestly I don’t know if I would’ve been as good. That’s true. I was really good, but Rick made me really, really good. If would’ve stayed with Rick, I would’ve been incredible. When you look at Pascal, Rick understands how to coach him. Rick looks very comfortable right now. I’m not saying the other coach is not (Thunder’s Mark Daigneault). He’s pretty incredible. He’s from the G League. But the Pacers are going to win in six.”

How did you react to Tyrese’s latest game-winner?

Sandiford-Artest: “He reminds me of Reggie Miller. He’s like the new and improved Reggie Miller. If you really look at it, he’s the new and improved Reggie Miller. Tyrese is if Reggie had a handle. If Reggie had handle like Tyrese and if Reggie had a ragged jump shot. Reggie could shoot. But you never saw Reggie perform tricks with the ball. But if Reggie had a handle, that’s what Tyrese has.”

Tyrese has made clutch plays. But he’s more of a pass-first player than a shooter.

Sandiford-Artest: “But he’s Reggie Miller, 1.5. That’s my quote.”

Did you think that before Game 1?

Sandiford-Artest: “I thought the Pacers would win in six. But I didn’t think about that comparison until after Game 1. He’s Reggie Miller with a handle.”

What do you make of Tyrese having some clutch games, always having high-assist numbers and having some poor shooting performances?

Sandiford-Artest: “It’s really hard to play a lot of perfect games in the playoffs. It’s not easy to go 16-for-16 or 16-for-25 in however many games. I don’t view it as anything, honestly. He’s just a young player in the playoffs. I had playoff games where I stunk it up early in my Pacers days. He’s going to play incredible. So after he wins a title, we’ll forget about those games.”

What do you think has gone into the Pacers having multiple comebacks in the playoffs?

Sandiford-Artest: “Rick Carlisle has adjusted a lot of times this season. Players don’t like to get touched, so he has changed his practice times and has adjusted. I’m not going to say everything that he does because I don’t want to give everything away. He has some secrets that he wants to keep. But I think in terms of how he coaches, it reminds me of when we were successful. I love the fact that he’ll go with a standard four or five, but he can also go small. He really adjusted to today’s times, similar to Nas.”

You’re comparing Rick Carlisle to Nas?

Sandiford-Artest: “In terms of how he adapted his game. He has been able to adjust for a long time. Rick is in his bag. You have to look out for Rick. When Rick had us, he knew we would’ve won it if it wasn’t for me. It’s like when Phil Jackson got [Michael] Jordan and then he got Kobe and Shaq. We took a couple of years off of Rick’s legacy, but he’ll be okay. He’ll have a couple more rings. He’ll be right.

Rick is incredible. I know what he’s doing. It’s a different group than when we played. They are definitely better offensively. They have a lot of people that are scoring right now. I think our defense was maybe better. But they are also good. They are executing on Rick’s ideas. That is really incredible that Rick can go back to his ‘call every set bag’ because it’s really hard to do. With how Rick coaches, it’s not easy. But you can see that they have gained his trust. If you trust it, it works with the type of team that they have. With [Pascal] Siakam, it’s going to be hard. That’s where they become great. Rick is in his bag. I remember his bag.

I love Rick Carlisle. Rick Carlisle told me at practice one day, ‘Ron, you’re going to be a hell of a coach.’ I was like, ‘Really, Rick?’ That right there really gave me the confidence to be on 100 because Rick told me that. If Rick didn’t tell me that, I wouldn’t be on 100 like this. If people really got an issue, they can go to Rick next. He inspired me to be a head coach. You’re talking about a really good coach.”

When you look back at the Pacers’ playoff run when you were there in 2004, why do you think you all fell short to Detroit in the East Finals?

Sandiford-Artest: “I think I was the weak link in that series, honestly. With the play of Richard Hamilton, I think that was the play that lost us the series. They were good. I loved Detroit. I wanted to go to Detroit. They should’ve made that happen when I said I wanted to go to Detroit. I didn’t get one call or anything back. How? I know things happened [with the Palace Brawl]. But come on. Me in Detroit would’ve been big.”

When were you trying to go there?

Sandiford-Artest: “Right before I signed with the Lakers.”

In 2009?

Sandiford-Artest: “Yeah, I was trying to go to Indiana first, and then the Knicks. But the Knicks were so far gone that it was not worth trying to talk to anybody with the Knicks. I didn’t have any movement with the Knicks, I wanted to go back to Indiana or Detroit. But the Lakers called right away. I never thought the Lakers would call me.”

Why not?

Sandiford-Artest: “I didn’t think they needed me. They got Kobe Bryant. What do you need me for? But that was incredible. I was like, ‘Wow.’ Why would Phil [Jackson] put me at the small forward? I’m a smart player.”

They wanted you to guard Paul Pierce in the Finals.

Sandiford-Artest: “Yeah, I’m a smart player. He isn’t just going to put anybody in that position to start all year. That’s a hell of a coach.”

It appears during the 2004 playoffs that you had some injuries. What were the things you were dealing with in the Pistons series?

Sandiford-Artest: “Yeah, my fingers were crazy. I had a bad left thumb. Everything was wrong with my hands. I had a heart surgery earlier, too. That was really quick. So that wasn’t an issue. The real issues were my hands. I was always playing with big wraps because my ligaments were always torn.”

Even during the first few games, you were putting the blame on yourself after not shooting the ball well. To what extent did that contribute to the struggles?

Sandiford-Artest: “I was dealing with injuries for sure. Detroit beat the Lakers that year. That year we felt like we should’ve won. That wasn’t the toughest series they had. They went right through the Lakers. They didn’t go through us. I was the guy. They couldn’t guard me. I should’ve never been in that situation. But you look at the next year, you saw how I was playing. Detroit was a tough team. But I was going right through them. I couldn’t bully them. But I could shoot and play defense. I could play defense better than all of them except for Ben [Wallace] but I got Defensive Player of the Year. That was hard. I was always in the running for the Defensive Player of the Year. It wasn’t like I wasn’t in the running. It was between me and Ben for a couple of years. That’s incredible. That’s who I was going up against.”

You were mentioning Rip Hamilton. What did you feel you both struggled and excelled in when you defended him that series?

Sandiford-Artest: “Rip was fast. Rip’s so fast. So guarding him was harder to guard than a lot of people. I was 248 [pounds] and Rip was like 195 [pounds]. So trying to chase Rip was a tough task. I was a little too heavy for him. But when I was able to get him one-on-one, I was good. He did make a couple of good moves one-on-one. But it was mostly off screens. I could guard him one-on-one iso. That was never the issue. He was tough to guard.”

How do you look back at the flagrant you got called for on him in Game 6?

Sandiford-Artest: “That was dumb. Honestly when I look at it, it wasn’t that bad. But Rip got me in the groin. Come on. But then I overreacted. I didn’t hit him hard. He kept playing. He pushed it up. The officials should’ve said, ‘Hey Ron, what are you doing?’ But I don’t think it should’ve been a flagrant. That wasn’t a flagrant, not at that time in the game. Look at what Draymond [Green] does. Come on, man. I didn’t hurt him. He hit me first. He got me. I got him back. Everybody is good. That was [Joey] Crawford. He just couldn’t wait to call it. He just couldn’t wait to call it. Guys got it way worse than that. You saw Larry Bird and Dr. J. That was way worse than that. To miss that as a ref, you’re not ready. But they did what they had to do. I love the Pistons. I felt like that year we would’ve gone to the Finals and we would’ve played the Lakers. We should have won it. That goes to show you right there that we would’ve been good enough to win it.”

How do you think a Pacers-Lakers Finals would’ve played out that year?

Sandiford-Artest: “It would’ve been the same thing as the Pistons. If we played well, I think we get them in six [games]. The Pistons got them in five. We were just like the Pistons. I thought we had a better offense. But I actually underestimated their offense because they had Rasheed Wallace. Rasheed was a beast. Corliss Williamson was no slouch. These guys could play and had a good, solid team. Ben Wallace is really good and covered the floor. He’s a great defender. Rip Hamilton is really good. He wears you out. That’s why I feel like we could’ve won. Reggie was still playing well. Then the next year was the ‘Brawl year. We came out of the gates playing well. We probably should’ve won it that year, too.”

Will you go to any of the games?

Sandiford-Artest: “If the Pacers call me, I’ll go to the Finals. Once they call me, I’m coming.”

Do you expect them to call?

Sandiford-Artest: “Maybe. I’m always doing stuff with the Pacers. I go to games and take pictures. I love the Pacers. I’ve done community stuff with the Pacers and signed autographs. I love doing stuff with the Pacers. I’ve been doing stuff with the Pacers for the past five years, I think. It’s great. I always want to see them win. I’ve been a part of their organization.”

Mark Medina is an NBA insider for Sportskeeda. Follow him on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, Facebook and Threads.