Lex Nihil Novi - What Ever Happened to the Fire Doc Websites?

What Ever Happened to the Fire Doc Websites?

12/19/07

At the nadir of the Doc Rivers Era, frustration came in an unflattering and unfiltered form. The Celtics were in the midst of a 101-77 loss to the New York Knicks early last season when a large group of fans at the TD Banknorth Garden began calling for the firing of the Celtics coach.

At the end of the Boston bench, where Celtics players heard the clamor, the chorus was even crueler.

Laughter.

So here we are now, roughly 13 months later, and the resurrected Celtics have a sterling 20-2 record entering tonight's game against the Detroit Pistons at the Garden. The Celtics are unbeaten at home. They have won nine straight. Boston's two losses have come by a combined seven points, one in regulation, the other in overtime.

Slightly more than two weeks ago, along with San Antonio's Gregg Popovich, Rivers was named the NBA Coach of the Month for November. For all of the changes that have taken place in the Celtics organization over the past several months, nobody has seen his life take a more dramatic turn than Glenn Anton Rivers, who knows as well as anyone the realities of life in the NBA.

``I'm no smarter, I can tell you that,'' Rivers mused recently when asked how two Celtics teams so drastically different could have the same coach. ``We have better talent. ... I'm no different, I'm the same person. We just have better players. And it's not just that we have better players. We have players that are committed to the team goal.''

Said Celtics forward Kevin Garnett, the centerpiece around whom the new Celtics are built: ``It's a new year, man. Everybody goes through the ups and downs in this league. Doc is not going to be isolated from that. It's amazing how a year or two years can turn something totally around to where people love you. It's like Biggie Smalls said, ain't no guarantee they're gonna love you anyway.''

See how much things have changed for the Celtics?

When the players laugh now, they laugh WITH their coach.

Father knows best

Spend five minutes in the company of Rivers and here is what you learn: The games end the moment he steps off the court. When Rivers speaks, there is no tap-dancing and less nonsense. Ask questions and you will get answers. If he has no intention of answering, he will tell you as much.

Regardless, he will speak calmly, assuredly and directly.

When you get right down to it, aren't most all relationships about communication? Rivers is the son of a Chicago police officer, Grady Alexander Rivers, who died earlier this season and whom Rivers playfully referred to as ``The Philosopher.'' By Doc Rivers' account, Grady Alexander Rivers was stern, demanding and well-read. The elder Rivers was also unyielding on the things that mattered most, like pride and integrity and work ethic.

Isn't it fitting, then, that Doc Rivers would demonstrate the influence of ``The Philosopher'' by recounting a parable?

``I remember a guy broke into our record store once,'' said Rivers, referring to the small family business that his family operated. ``We figured the guy was gone and we were cleaning up glass and stuff. My mom reached in the closet to get a broom and felt (the intruder's) arm, and she backed up.

``My dad, I thought, was going to kill that guy. And he wasn't mad because he (just) stole. He kept saying to the guy, `As hard as I work, and you're going to try and steal this from ME?' To me, you had (the contrast of) what was right and what was wrong. It was clear with him. He believed you worked hard. Nothing for free.''

All of this brings us back to the Celtics, to last season, the third of Rivers' four years as Celtics coach. At the hardest times, Rivers found himself doing the darnedest thing: He was giving away things for free. The Celtics went from 45 wins in Rivers' first season to 33 in his second. Last year, aided largely by an injury to Paul Pierce, the Celtics won just 24 times.

Along the way, during a frustrating season in which the Celtics at one point set a franchise record for consecutive losses, Rivers did what the coach of a young and inexperienced team must do. He sacrificed games in the present with the hope that it would help the team in the future. He let players play not because it was what they deserved, but rather because it was what they needed.

It was what the Celtics needed, too.

Even if it went against most everything Rivers believes in.

``My job was to develop guys even if they shouldn't play. Could we have squeezed out eight more wins? Absolutely. I believe that,'' Rivers said.

``In some ways, (the longer term approach) freaked me out. I played guys not only based on who played the hardest and who was developing, but I played guys on potential, too -- guys who didn't deserve to play. There were a couple of guys last year who didn't deserve to play, who deserved zero minutes, and I played 'em anyway because I thought that, for the overall good of the future, that's what we had to do. That's no fun.''

You see?

Doc Rivers wasn't exactly crazy about how things went for the Celtics last season, either.

Ainge a believer

Beyond the obvious absence of talent on the Celtics' roster, here was what the 2006-07 season revealed: Danny Ainge truly believes in his coach. Prior to becoming the Celtics vice president of basketball operations, Ainge competed against Rivers when both played in the NBA. Later, when Ainge was a television analyst, he critiqued Rivers when the latter was coach of the Orlando Magic. Along the way, Ainge also did what every future NBA executive should do.

He coached a team himself.

Armed with all of those experiences, Ainge last season steadfastly stood behind his coach, even at the most difficult times, never once wavering the slightest bit. Any suggestion that Rivers' job might be in jeopardy was met with a swift and decisive denial from the man who hired Rivers in the first place, and it now appears as if Ainge was right.

In an age when so many executives change coaches, Ainge did the opposite.

He changed his team.

``The people that are chanting (for Rivers to be fired) don't have the information. They only see what's happening in the game,'' Ainge said. ``Too many people think they can coach and don't have a clue. Coaching is a lot more than chess. You're dealing with emotions, you're dealing with players and you're coaching for the next week, the next game (or) a specific substitution. You're dealing with the emotions of the players and the egos of the players constantly.

``My job is to evaluate what's going on,'' Ainge continued. ``I'm at practice almost every day. I'm watching the team play. I have feedback. And I did not feel at any time since I've been here with Doc -- not one time -- that he wasn't a good basketball coach. Never once did I doubt whether he was capable of coaching because I'd been a coach for four years. I knew the difficult hand he'd been dealt.''

Nonetheless, at times, Ainge also succumbed to frustration. There was an occasion during Rivers' career in Boston, Ainge recalled, when he was dissatisfied with the way the team was playing. Ainge made a list of ``about 20 things,'' that were eating at him, then trimmed the list to 12. He walked into Rivers' office intending to discuss them with the coach, only to see that Rivers himself had a made a list of about 10 items and that ``all of his things were on my list.''

Ainge crumpled up the piece of paper and put it in his pocket, emphasizing that he has not engaged in a similar exercise since.

These days, the Celtics are counting altogether different things.

Like wins.

``I don't feel vindicated YET,'' Ainge said when asked if he felt inclined to issue an I-told-you-so for standing by his coach.

``I feel like our team is good and Doc is proving he can coach, but I've never doubted that,'' said Ainge, who last season gave Rivers a two-year contract extension through the 2008-09 season. ``Hubie Brown wasn't always Hubie Brown and Bill Belichick wasn't always Bill Belichick. They've had their ups and downs in their coaching careers. And so you believe in some as a person. You believe in their work ethic and their integrity, and how they approach the game and how they deal with the players. And you try to get them the best players you can to succeed.''

Isn't that what this really comes down to now?

The Celtics have the players.

A coach with a clue

Doc Rivers never saw himself solely as a basketball player as much as he saw himself as someone who played basketball. He is a son, husband and father, too. A professional sports season can be all-consuming given the length and demand of the schedule, and Rivers believes that time away from the court is healthy time.

Unlike the Celtics of a year ago, for instance, these Celtics are a largely veteran team. In that way, the current Celtics may be a better fit for their coach. Rivers has been criticized in the past for taking time away from the team to be with his family, but that is something he had never hidden, disguised or distorted.

In his mind, countless hours of practice are meaningless if they are not productive.

``He's a guy who respects us as players,'' veteran guard Ray Allen said of Rivers. ``He's not trying to tear our bodies down. He's not trying to run us into the ground. He respects not only the basketball side of what we have to do but also the personal side. He doesn't harp on the stuff that doesn't matter.

``His world is not trapped inside a basketball bubble, so you know he's doing other things with his life,'' Allen said. ``It's refreshing. He knows what his job is, but he knows that life is going on (for everybody), too. We've had days off that I would have never gotten off on other teams and it's been time at home, well spent with the family.''

If all of that sounds like Rivers is, for lack of a better word, SOFT, think again. While Ainge noted that Rivers' direct nature sometimes made things more difficult for the younger Celtics of the past, Garnett has stated more than once that Rivers is especially demanding of point guard Rajon Rondo. Now in his second season, Rondo recited the party line and said that Rivers merely wants him to become a better player, though one must wonder if, at times, the youngster truly believes it.

Earlier this month, when the Celtics dozed through the first half of an eventual win over Philadelphia, Garnett revealed after the game that Rivers chastised the team at halftime.

``(People) say `player's coach' and he's a step above that,'' Garnett said. ``He knows offense, knows defense, understands momentum and knows flow. He's a combination of an offensive and defensive coach, which is a rarity.

``He's demanding. He's very straight, very up front and I like it like that,'' Garnett continued. ``At the same time, he's loving and caring, and he knows when to be either one, and that's a perfect mix for this team. He gives us a chance to get rest, but when he comes in here, he lets us compete. He lets us be who we are. He doesn't try to change you. He runs his practices. There are not too many people who are going to come in here and start talking to players when he's in here coaching, and I love that.

``That hasn't always been the case in some of the situations I've been in and I love that,'' concluded Garnett, who is known for a strong work ethic. ``I love that he runs his ship.''

Sixty-two games to go.

Full speed ahead.



bob



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Similar websites may just be found in the southern CA area as a LAC re-build looks likely.