There's a lot of reading on this from ESPN.com/Boston. For those of you too lazy to go there, here's the article:
At the start of a conference call with the Boston media on Wednesday, former Celtics coach Doc Rivers was asked the question most fans are still trying to get an answer for: Why did he leave?
"Honestly, that is one of those [questions] that there’s no answer to it," said Rivers. "It’s not like I was looking for change. This kinda came about, and I think [Celtics] president of basketball operations] Danny [Ainge] talked about that yesterday. Let me start by saying this, I didn’t go into this whole process, I never went into Danny’s office and we never had any conversations like, 'If you don’t bring Kevin [Garnett] and Paul [Pierce] back, I don’t want to come back.’ I never went into his office and said that, 'If Rondo is there, I don’t want to come back.’ Rondo and I, our relationship has really grown and it’s good. Danny and I, our relationship was great.
"It’s just the same thing that I go through every year. At the end of the year, I just don’t know if my time has run its course and if it’s time for a change. Two years ago I thought it and I ended up signing because, literally, at that time, I though I had to sign. I just thought it was the right thing to do in the part where our organization was at... I just thought it would be the wrong time to leave. Last year, I thought about it some more, and this year, right after the year, right after the Knicks game, I told everyone, 'Thank you,' because, in my mind, after that game, right after that game, I was probably going to take a break, because I never thought that I could just leave and go somewhere else.'
"I didn’t even think that was something that was in the cards or possible, and I didn’t push for it. But when Danny told me that there was an opportunity to do that, as long as he can take care of his end, then that’s what piqued my interest, honestly. I’ve been here for nine years, I loved it there. I just didn’t know if it wasn’t time. Listen, I could have been wrong about it, but that’s just how I felt."
Rivers was asked if he thought his players might be getting to the point were they might tune him out.
"I didn’t think they had tuned me out, but I thought it could be time for that," said Rivers. "Yeah, I was concerned by that. I thought they were very coachable, the group that I had. But that was a concern. Just having a new challenge, that was something, as a coach, you just don’t want to feel like you’re just there. I also knew we were going to rebuild. And Danny and [ownership], this is one part that Danny and them knew as well: Danny and I have a great relationship, and I think Danny understood that to pay a coach $7 million per year for the next three and maybe not win, that’s a lot. And so I thin, ownership, [co-owner Steve Palgiuca] and I talked on Sunday and he basically said, ‘Listen, we’d love for you to stay, and I’ve heard you decided to stay, but obviously if we get a [first-round] pick [as compensation] and we can get off your contract, too, that’s good, too. I agreed with all that, so let’s just see where it goes. That’s just the mode I was in... and if it goes that is beneficial for them, and beneficial for me, then we should look at it, and this came up."
Rivers had once desired to plant long-term roots in Boston, saying after he inked a five-year, $35 million deal two summers ago that he desired to mimic San Antonio's Gregg Popovich and Utah's Jerry Sloan. So what changed?
"That was my intentions," said Rivers. "I don’t know what changed. It wasn’t anything that Danny or [owner] Wyc [Grousbeck] or ownership did or anything the players did; clearly it wasn't the city. I just felt like I needed change for my voice, I needed change for a challenge standpoint. I don’t know what changed there, but it was me, in that regards. It was just something that I thought was the right thing to do. Again, I wasn't willing to do it, unless I thought I was doing the right thing by Danny and Wyc and his group. As early as Sunday, I called Danny and said, 'Hey, listen, I'm staying. I'm coming back. I'm going to give you everything I have in rebuilding. But I just told him I hope you understand, I have to do it year to year. And Danny was fine with that. Then two hours later he called back and said the deal is done. It's not like they didn't get anything out of this; if they didn't, they could have said no to the deal. And they didn't because Danny thought it was a good thing for the franchise and he also thought it was a good thing for me. Danny and I, our relationship is terrific, so this is not a one-tricky pony deal, where I was the only one fueling this. I never pushed this deal. It did happen, and I thought it was a great opportunity and I took the opportunity."
Doc says at the beginning "It's not like I was looking for a change", and then he later says "I needed a change for a challenge standpoint." Hmm. And according to him, there was a mutual agreement between him and ownership that parting ways for the Clippers pick (and shedding his $7 mil/year salary) was best, even though ownership would have let him stay.
He said that he was ready to come back for the rebuild, but I'm skeptical. Maybe I missed something. In any case, it's all over now, and I'm absolutely thrilled that we got something for him.
LOL I was thinking the same, one minute he wasn't looking for change then a few sentences later he was looking for change and a new challenge (and titles in another part). Doc doesn't sound credible.
Honestly, I believe both that Danny, ownership, and Doc wanted a change. Doc, because he didn't want the hassle of rebuilding (he likes the vets who are easier to coach), and Celtics because they didn't want to really pay that money during this process, they knew Doc didn't really want to be there anymore, they were getting a pick and clearing his money off of the books.
Doc pretty much said that the guys coming in for the rebuilding process would probably tune him out... he said the guys he had didn't and wouldn't so he had to be talking about the new young troop coming in. He must be saying that when he had to go through the rebuild before (well he came in during the 1000 yrs of rebuilding that had been long ago started lol), that the guys were tuning him out, he sounds like he was speaking from past experience b/c he said that it hadn't happened with the current guys.
I'm not mad at Doc like I see most everyone is, I thought it was time for a coaching change a couple seasons ago. I also don't think he is anywhere near the level of Ray... Ray went to our current biggest rival on the court, a team who booted us from the playoffs 2 seasons in a row. Doc is going to the Clipps who I don't care about, I mean we wont even meet them in anything significant unless we both make the NBA Finals. I don't like Blake but I don't have any reason to dislike the Clipps unlike I do for Mia. If Ray had gone to the Clippers instead of Mia, I would probably still like him (KG might also still like him). Now if Doc chose to coach Fakers or Cheat, I would feel differently (even though management would NEVER agree to it for those teams)!
I still don't think Doc (and even KG) would be enough for Clipps to win it all. I could be wrong but to me, they would have just turned into Celtics team out West. If they made other moves (like getting PP if we let him walk and only gave up Jordan and a pick and no other key guys), yes they would be better... but a lot of little things would have to fall in place for that.
Topic: Doc Rivers: Press Conference and Celtics (Read 11318 times)