Doc Rivers: “Coaches talk about loyalty and team all the time. I just thought it was time to show it”
Doc Rivers could have retired to spend time with his family. He could have allowed his contract to expire and immediately taken the reins of another team. He could have taken one year off and chosen whatever job opening he wanted. But it wouldn’t have felt right. Not after the loyalty the Celtics showed him four years ago, when he was coming off a 24-58 season and the town of Boston wanted his head. Not after four years of coaching a group that could rival his fierce competitive streak. Not after all the elating wins and devastating losses and time spent building relationships with his players.
He couldn’t turn on Danny Ainge now, nor could he turn on Steve Pagliuca, Wyc Grousbeck, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, or Ray Allen. Even with the franchise’s uncertain future looming like an approaching storm, even though he could have chosen any other coaching job in the league, Rivers signed a five-year contract extension to stay in Boston.
“It would have been easier to do it the other way,” he told WEEI during an interview. “I just don’t think it’s the right thing to do. Coaches talk about loyalty and team all the time. I just thought it was time to show it. And that’s what I did.”
The future does worry Rivers. He knows the Big Three are becoming moldy as they approach their expiration date, and has already begun devising ways to maximize their production.
“Kevin Garnett, for example,” he said. “Instead of playing him two stints in a half, which is equal to 32 minutes, you have to play him five-minute increments to let him play with his pure power, give him a rest, bring him back in. I think substituting him that way will keep him fresher longer.”
Even with fewer minutes dispersed in different intervals, Rivers sees next year as the Big Three’s final run. He knows they can still produce like superstars on occasion—think Garnett’s 28-point, 18-rebound performance in Game 3—but the days when they could do that every game are over. A passing of the torch will occur soon. The Big Three will retire or they will become bit pieces, and Ainge will need to surround Rajon Rondo with new superstars if the Celtics plan to skip a long-term rebuilding process reminiscent of the Gerald Green days. If it comes to that rebuilding, Rivers is willing to stick around for that. But he hopes it won’t be necessary.
“Who says that we still can’t [reload] with free agency and adding the right pieces?” he asked. “While our Big Three are getting older, we have to add the right supporting cast to them. In that transition, hopefully we can still chase what we want.”
The Celtics presumably want titles, or at least long playoff runs that extend until late May or some time in June. Rivers wants that too, of course, but looks to a man who doesn’t have a single title as one of his coaching role models. Jerry Sloan spent 22 title-less years coaching the Utah Jazz. He became almost synonymous with John Stockton and Karl Malone, but outlasted his two superstars to rebuild the Jazz almost from scratch. Even in Utah’s rebuilding years Sloan kept them competitive; he had only one losing season during his entire Utah career. He never won a Coach of the Year Award (he was no Sam Mitchell, after all) and never did win a ring, but Sloan set the blueprint for long-tenured coaches.
“I look at the Utah situation and Jerry Sloan,” said Rivers. “And I look at the situation in San Antonio. Danny and I were talking — those are the two more stable franchises, because they’ve had the same coach and the same GM and the same ownership. They’ve been able to draft well, scout well, pick the right players for the system because they’ve known the system. When we talked about it, that’s what we want to do.”
Five years ago I was finishing up my AP Statistics final project so I could graduate from prep school. Raef LaFrentz and Ricky Davis started for the Celtics. I weighed 35 fewer pounds, still played basketball competitively, hated writing, and wore a set of metal braces on my teeth. Yes, I still had braces during my fifth (and final) year of high school. During home games after I would make a nice play, the crowd used to chant pro-metal mouth refrains: “He’s got braces, he’s got braces, he’s got braces… and you don’t!” Looking back, it probably wasn’t my proudest moment. The point is, a lot happens in five years.
There’s so much uncertainty in Boston’s future. How many productive years do the Big Three have left? Who will the Celtics sign to team with Rondo? Will Dwight Howard or another superstar consider Boston and the cold winters? More immediately, will Ainge re-sign Jeff Green, Nenad Krstic or Glen Davis? And perhaps most importantly, do the Celtics have a rebuilding process in their short-term prognosis, or will they simply reload?
Even though coaching contracts aren’t always honored, only one thing seems certain about the Celtics’ future: Doc Rivers will lead the way. There’s plenty left to figure out, but at least that’s a pretty good start.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | May 16, 2011
I’m sorry, but what a nauseating load of steaming rot. They offered Doc a nice fat contract and he said “OMG YES!!” That’s what happened. Nothing to do with loyalty. Hey, I don’t blame him. Just, let’s now weave a golden halo around the guy.
But yeah, he really does have a golden tongue, which unfortunately seduces a lot of folks in the media and fandom.
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It’s not about the Big Three, right now, though they can surely continue to contribute, if they want to. It’s about Rondo, and it’s darn well time to recognize that, Doc. I WANT TO KNOW HOW YOU WILL MAXIMIZE RONDO. I’m not as interested in how you will maximize Garnett, much as I love the guy.
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Ehh, I disagree. Doc could have gotten at least as much money anywhere else, or he could have gotten a cushy TV job. This wasn’t about the money.
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Right. Eh. Meh. Various disdainful words.
I knew you’d disagree. And you know what? You can speculate all you want about the wondrous riches he ‘could’ have gotten elsewhere. The fact is, he got a huge deal from the Celtics, and he jumped at it, and you CHOOSE to paint that in golden colors of love and loyalty. I guess your pollyanna fans here dig that.
But let me give you an example of someone who signed a contract out of some kind of dedication: Shaq. Shaq didn’t need the pittance we gave him. He wanted a championship and did everything he could to bring it to us. Doc? He signed for sackful of cash.
I’d love it if some of you folks who worship the ground Doc walks on would take a moment to think about the significance of what Doc said just recently. Basically, he FINALLY said what those of us (justly) excoriating Danny for The Trade have been saying all along: that The Trade was ‘not good timing’ (DocSpeak for, IT TRULY MASSIVELY SUCKED). Now do you think an actual good and loyal coach would have allowed Danny to make a deal that he pretty much knew would screw up the Big Three’s last chance for a championship (and let’s get real – if we win next year, it will be because of the Big Three helping, but not being the main wheels anymore)? No. Especially considering that Doc has plenty of money and COULD easily have walked. No, a real coach would have said “over my dead body, Danny”. A real coach wouldn’t have accepted the deal AND then spent the next two months shilling for it, before finally admitting that it really sucked.
You want to talk about loyalty. What kind of loyalty did Doc show to the Big Three and Rondo when he allowed Danny to go ahead and screw over their chances for a championship this year?
But oh yeah. Loyalty to players doesn’t matter in sports does it? Players are disposable.
Oh, and eh. Meh. Bah. Whatever, pal.
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And, by the way, are any of you folks who spent the last two months defending The Trade, and attacking anyone who pointed out the Emperor’s (Danny’s) extreme lack of clothes, ready to apologize, now that Doc has finally stopped shilling long enough to confirm what we said all along?
No. Of course not. Nope. Most of you will double down on how great Danny is, and how great Doc is, and how great Jeff Green is, and what a scrub Perkins is, and shouldn’t we all get down on our knees and worship authority, because isn’t life easier when you worship authority? No need for critical thinking. No need to have your own opinions. Just think what you are told to think.
As for Doc, he just signed for 30 million or whatever. Gee, what a guy. What a saint. What a big (cash-stuffed) heart the guy has.
meh
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Look, as a minor fan of Doc and someone extremely critical of his coaching style and techniques over the last 2 seasons, I think Doc figured out that a bird in the hand is better…especially at $2M or so per season. Why walk from that when you’re not guaranteed anything, anywhere, or anytime else? Great he’s “loyal”. I’m loyal to the Cs and I’m not paid and suffer a lot of anguish at their lackadaisical play and losses in games they should have won. That said, I think Doc needs to go to paul’s ‘Rondo summer camp’ and sit down with his coaches and actually come up with a game plan for training camp and the season (albeit it will change some depending on FA transactions, possible trades, and new faces from the draft). He needs to focus on:
1. Better rebounding – can’t emphasize this enough and on BOTH ends
2. Rondo pushing the ball all game (a nod to paul as he is 100% correct)
3. Develop the draftees and give them actual meaningful minutes in real games
4. Better rotations – mix it up more and adjust to the games better by (oh my god no) benching players not doing what they are supposed to be doing and that includes the core 4.
5. More rebounding and blocking out (see what it got the Bulls last night?)
As I wrote yesterday, I think the loss of Tom Thibodeau hurt more than people realize and so I hope a defensive strategy and offensive game plan can be implemented and stuck to with undying conviction by all. This team has talent and lost by all of 22 pts to the Heat. Since the Heat lost Game 1 by 21 points that only makes me even more disappointed that the lame injuries and refs (PP ejection & lack of calls [Rondo/Wade event and the disparity of foul shots taken]) and sub-mental Celtic play at key moments cost us a chance to face the Bulls and get to the Finals. Doc needs to get mad and stop coaching with only a guard’s mentality. If he does then next year’s team won’t piss away the home court advantage and might just resemble the 2008 title team with a style of play we can all be proud of. Go Cs….
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P.S. $5.5M, and I only thought $2M…what a dunce I am. He needs to change his coaching style or this will be worse than paul ranting about the ‘trade’. He got a great pension and jumped at it. Should have only been a 3 year deal.
paul…DA is great; Doc is not, but is tolerable (Thibodeau was a major asset to Doc and the team), Green needs to prove himself or go, and Perk is still Perk…a mediocre center. Go Cs….
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I don’t know which is more nauseating: Danny worship or Doc worship.
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