Doc Rivers Is The "Players Coach" That Don't Play

A nice, thoughtful piece on Doc Rivers by Paul Flannery about how he's a "players coach" but that doesn't mean he's a push-over. Not by a long shot.

celtics - The genius of Doc Rivers, a true player's coach - WEEI | Paul Flannery

Rivers rarely indicts players by name when he drops the hammer, but that didn’t stop him from telling Rajon Rondo that he should feel honored to have his name come up in trade talks with a great player like Chris Paul. He told Kevin Garnett to play the five and Ray Allen to come off the bench. This did not always go over well, but his players still swear by him.

“The thing that he does that separates him from the rest of the coaches is he allows players to be who they are,” Keyon Dooling said. “He’s not going to bombard with you a whole bunch of rules, regulations. The little things that a lot of coaches trip off of in our league. He gives us so much leeway, so much freedom to be who we are, as long as you do your job. He treats us like men.”

And there's no doubt who's in charge. The article goes on to quote KG humorously comparing Doc to Cuba. Good stuff.