and he deserves some praise for it! He said he would have a real problem coaching the lakers, that basically he wouldn't do it and told his agent so. I was so proud to see Doc and Ray saying the last few days that they are celtics and they will always be celtics.

From the WEEI interview:

http://greenstreet.weei.com/sports/boston/basketball/celtics/2011/05/16/doc-rivers-on-dc-i-just-thought-it-was-time-to-show-loyalty/

"On the subject of doing the right thing and it being the right thing to do: Can you imagine — before you signed this contract — a scenario where you might have taken a year off, would you, could you have coached the Los Angeles Lakers?

I don’t know that. Once you take a year off, you pretty much can coach anywhere. But that would have been strange.

Ethically, would you have a problem with that, them being the Celtics’ archenemy?

I did have a problem with that if I had, let’s say, did it this year. I had a philosophical, a big problem with that. If I had said, ‘You know what, I’m going to let my contract expire at the end of this year,’ and then go take actually any other team. But especially them and a couple of other teams. I couldn’t do it. I told my agent that. That’s something I can’t do. I don’t function that way. And I just thought it would be a very difficult thing for me to do."