Doc Rivers Is In It For The Long Haul

by Jeff Clark on Jan 22, 2012 2:25 PM EST in Boston Celtics News & Links

I agreed to participate in a 3-on-3 discussion with the Wizards blog Truth About It. On the the questions was about our coach.

Truth About It " 3-on-3: Wizards vs Celtics: How Did We Get Here?

True or False? Doc Rivers should have left the Celtics after last season.

CLARK: I’ll say false because I get what he’s trying to do. In theory he could have walked away a winner, taken a year off, done some TV, watched his kids play, and come back for the job of his choice. But instead he decided to settle in for the long haul (and get paid handsomely by the way). He wants to be an institution as a coach in a league that chews them up and spits them out every 2 years. That’s a rare thing and to do it for a storied franchise like the Celtics is a special thing. Besides, he’s got a GM that he works very well with. So there are just a lot of reasons to stay, despite the win-loss record in any particular season.

I'm very happy to have Doc Rivers back. I know some are critical of his job developing talent, but I think he did as well as you could have expected with a lot of those guys during the last rebuilding era.

Read the other responses to this question and a couple other questions here.

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on the one hand

doc drove me crazy by not playing the kids more back in the dark days a few years back. on the other hand, he turned some of them into pieces valuable enough to trade for KG. there’s also no doubt the players play all-out for him, and he has demonstrated many times that he is one of the best coaches in the game. its also unfortunate for him that there was ALWAYS some major problem minus the magical 2007-08 season – KG being out, KG not being right the following year + losing Perkins in Game 6 + the ~~fixed~~ questionable refereeing in the 4th quarter of Game 7, Perkins and Marquis both getting hurt (which precipitated the Perkins trade) + Shaq never coming back + Rondo’s elbow injury/the Heat’s dirty play and miraculous 3-point shooting. Every team faces some issues, but we seem to have big problems every year at the worst times possible.

by guy incognito on Jan 22, 2012 4:00 PM EST reply actions