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Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports has filed two great pieces on Doc Rivers that are must reads for any Celtics fan. He caught up with Doc as he serves as a studio host for NBC Sports covering hoops in London. The first makes a strong case for Doc to coach Team USA in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
"I'm as patriotic as anybody, but I would rather win the NBA championship than a gold medal," Rivers said. "But winning a gold medal - and trying to win a gold medal - is a completely different feeling, and there's no feeling like it. But when you're in the NBA it's a yearly process. Think about me: I was 0-13 in my playing career, got close a couple times. It becomes a desperate pursuit to win it. After a few more years as a coach, after nearly 20 years in the league, I finally win. There's no pursuit like that.
"When you try to win the Olympics, you make a team and it's a much shorter pursuit over several weeks. It's still great, but I would guarantee you that Coach K would take the NCAA championships first. The players who say 'I'd take the gold medal' have never won an NBA championship."
The second is a very candid interview about Ray Allen's departure this summer and decision to join the rival Heat.
"As a coach, you've got to do what's best for the team. If guys don't like it, they're going to leave. If they stay and don't like it, well, your team's going to suck anyway. Even if this happens, you still have to do it. You can't coach worrying about any individual. You've got to coach worrying about your entire team: Whether that gets you a championship or whether that gets you fired."
The article confirms many of the rumors leaked and circulated by the media: the strife between Rondo and Ray, the disrespect Ray felt about moving to the bench, and Doc's full trust in Rondo taking over the team. More so though, both articles really make me love having Doc as our coach even more. He was watching the Western Conference Finals on the plane ride to London, he's studying the international game while he's at the Olympics, and he put team first when a Hall of Famer pouted over playing time. In Doc I Trust.