LOS ANGELES – The rumors that L.A. Clippers head coach Doc Rivers was interested in coaching the Los Angeles Lakers heated up over the last couple of days. Ahead of Tuesday night's matchup against the Indiana Pacers, Rivers was asked about the talks, and he took a moment to shut them down.
“I have a job and the Lakers have a coach,” said Rivers. “I'm going nowhere. I can tell you that, straight, up front. I'm going to be here until [Clippers owner] Steve [Ballmer] says get out. I plan on being here a long time. Just so we never talk about this for a while, we end this right now, Magic Johnson and I are very close friends. That's what we are, good friends. I have great respect for him. But Steve Ballmer and I have a great relationship.”
Back in May of 2018, Rivers and Ballmer agreed to a two-year extension. Rivers was expected to be the coach of the Clippers future, but Rivers revealed an opt-out in the deal Ballmer gave him, allowing both sides to use the first years to see if it was the right fit for each other. That test-run quickly escalated into a contract extension.
“This summer we decided to extend my contract,” added Rivers. “I'm going to throw this out because I think it's worth saying, it says something about Steve. He did something I don't think any owner would do. He gave me an out where I could opt out this summer.”
“We wanted to test each other, we thought this was the right fit, but we wanted to make sure. As my dad said, ‘Trust everybody, but cut the cards.' It was one of those things. Early this year, we both decided let's end this thing, take this out, extend it and make it a longer deal. We've long decided on that but we chose not to say anything about it.”
Rivers is now locked in to an unspecified extension with the Clippers as they look to continue building a hard-playing, winning culture in Los Angeles. Even more important is locking in a championship-winning head coach during an impressive Coach of the Year-worthy run and just months before free agency is set to begin. The ultimate goal for the Clippers remains to win an NBA Championship, says Rivers.
“I'm here, and my job is not done here. I came here for a lot of reasons. One of them was to win a world championship. another one was to make this a place that people respect and want to come to. That's my goal. We don't need to go on this anymore. I'm going to be here and looking forward to the future.”
“Steve was a man of his word. He gave a coach a chance to do what he wanted to do. This coach chose to stay right where he's at and I'm very happy about it.”
This news comes on the heels of Doc Rivers' 300th win as the coach the Clippers, becoming the seventh coach in NBA history to win 300+ regular season games with two or more teams, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. In addition to that, he's also the winningest coach in Clippers franchise history.
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