Pacers Coach Uses His Press Conference to Encourage a Bone Marrow Donor for Former Team Athletic Trainer

Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle is spreading the word about becoming a bone marrow donor in the wake of a longtime NBA athletic trainer’s leukemia diagnosis.

“As many of you know, he’s fighting for his life,” Carlisle told reporters on Monday, Dec. 22 about Dr. Ed Lacerte, who was the Boston Celtics’ athletic trainer for decades. “He has aggressive leukemia, and there’s an effort right now to find a stem cell match.”

Carlisle didn’t know Lacerte when he was a player for the Celtics, but they crossed paths years after, when the former Dallas Mavericks coach was president of the NBA Coaches Association and Lacerte was the treasurer of the NBA Trainers Association, The Athletic reported.

Just before tip off in the Pacers-Celtics game, Carlisle used his media availability to explain how to become a donor.

“To register, you need to be between ages 18 and 35,” Carlisle, 66, said. “It’s a simple 20-second cheek swab to find a match. It can be done at home. And donating is as simple as giving blood. My understanding is that he has a bit of a rare blood type, and so, the search is a bit more challenging than perhaps other cases. But for more details, go to Celtics social media, and you can find out more.”

This season, Celtics players have worn shirts that read “20 seconds could save a life” to honor Lacerte, who was the team’s head trainer and physical therapist for 30 years.

Carlisle said the Pacers have plans to sport similar shirts later this year, and that they have made pins to commemorate the 65-year-old Lacerte’s fight.

“This is a great man,” Carlisle said. “He served his country. He served this city, this organization, and it’s a difficult struggle right now. So, anything any of us can do to help bring awareness, we would like to do.”

During the game, which the Pacers lost 103-95, fans at TD Garden who fit the qualifications to be donors were encouraged to stop by a section for a cheek swab.

Family members started a national campaign, spearheaded by Ed’s daughter Arianna Lacerte, earlier this month to register as many donors as they could.

Last month, Arianna and her fiancé Josh Kipnis were married in Lacerte’s hospital room, three days after his diagnosis. They exchanged rings inscribed with her father’s mantra: “We can never do enough for family.”

“After the ceremony, when we told him about the rings and the engravings on the inside, he grabbed both of our hands and pulled them up to his face to kiss the rings,” Josh and Arianna previously told PEOPLE in an interview. “He’s continued to do that just about every day since when we come to the hospital to visit with him.”