Once upon a time, Doc Rivers was the head coach for the Boston Celtics. Under his leadership, Rivers led the Celtics to their sole NBA championship in 2008. Rivers was famous for his plucky defensive schemes and his utilization of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett.
When the Celtics dismantled their core to rebuild for the future, Rivers left to pursue a head coaching job with the Clippers where he currently is now. According to Danny Ainge, he actually begged Rivers to stay in Boston to no avail.
“I just look back on it as a case where I totally understood from the beginning where Doc was coming from,” said Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge. “We had a lot of discussions. I know that it was not an easy decision for him, and it was very challenging and difficult at the time.
“We tried to talk him into staying. It’s hard to predict how building a new team is going to be, but he had done it once and we had faith in him. But he didn’t want to do it. He wanted to go try to win an NBA title, and who can knock him for that?
“I’ll forever be grateful for Doc and all that he did. I’ll always appreciate what he did for us.”
Rivers has actually fallen short of his championship aspirations with the Clippers, where he has failed to lead his team past the second round of the playoffs. Ainge appears to harbor a great deal of respect for his former coach, and Rivers must be grateful for this now that he has moved on.
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