I don't have strong feelings for him either way, but this article rehashes a lot of old stuff and just kind of takes shots at Doc. Whats the point of that? Leaked to prepare for him being fired?
Agreed. Most of the 'issues' seem like the normal issues any manager of diverse people will exhibit over a looooong career.
If you take a close look at anybody's career that is as long as Doc's, you will find a ton of anecdotes and quotes and images and bits and pieces of stories that are both positive and negative. You can thus paint any picture you want by simply focusing more on the positive or more on the negative.
Personally, I try not to waste too much energy pretending I know the true 'character' of any of these people. I don't. You don't. We never will.
Bottom line is always what they did on the court. Doc's record speaks for itself.
Ah, see this is where my take on Doc firmed up:
As a player, he was solid, above average, and played hard most of the time. Not exactly an immortal sports hero, but a very good player with a good career on good teams surrounded by some great players and coaches.
As a coach, his early accolades came from doing what a lot of coaches have done: get a young team to play well and hard enough to exceed expectations in Orlando, and as most coaches who do this have done, he got COY, then fired when the team came down to earth. Here, our title success was about the KG/Thibs synergy that produced great defense, and an offense with players that couldn't be stopped who usually shared the ball. I mean, I don't know what exactly it was he did as a coach that a pretty average NBA coach couldn't have done, except...
When the Sterling thing all went down in LA, Doc earned my enduring respect for basically somehow holding that franchise together and being a strong moral voice.
So never particularly impressed with Doc as a player or coach, but a strong leader in times of moral crisis. That's worth a lot, and even though it may be time for he and the Clips to part, I hope he gets the degree of respect he deserves for what he's done for that organization. It might not be an exaggeration to say he's one of the most significant Clippers ever. Though maybe that itself would be [dang]ing him with faint praise.