Vinny Del Negro? You've gotta be kidding me.

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix gave WEEI an interview today, and it’s just the latest in a long line of signs that Doc Rivers intends to walk away from basketball — and the Boston Celtics — before next season.

I’ve talked to a few coaching friends of Doc in the last 72 hours, and every one of them, the consensus is that he’s probably going to walk away. For all the reasons that he enumerated, there’s nothing remotely surprising about it. They feel like it’s time, they feel like it makes sense. He’s taken the team or the team has gone as a current group as far as they possibly can go and now is a great situation to leave. Nothing that’s new as far as I was being told, but the tug of the family in Florida and wanting to watch his kids grow up have really weighed on Doc a lot more this year than they have in years past. So the consensus is around the league that he’s going to walk away.

Mannix then spoke about possible Rivers replacements, naming Kevin McHale, Sam Mitchell and — wait for it… keep waiting… good God it’s bad — Vinny Del Negro as top choices. Look, losing Doc Rivers is bad enough. Speculation about Del Negro coaching the Celtics? Now that is some shit I can’t handle.

In other news, Mannix said one GM told him Ray Allen was going to ask for a five year, $75 million deal. What the fuck? That can’t be right, can it?