Doc is gone. Doc coached the celtics to a championship. Why so many on this blog seem to delight in humiliating and lambasting doc is beyond me.
No one likes to be "big timed." Doc left for one reason and one reason only, because he decided he was too important, too special, too wonderful to go through a rebuilding process. So he left behind the team, the management and the fans that had supported him when he was coaching a team that went from 45 winds to 24 wins because just making millions of dollars to coach the Celtics wasn't enough for him any more. Only competing for a championship would be good enough for him.
Which is why it's pretty darned amusing to see his ego-fueled endeavor fall apart because of his own incompetence, while the team he left behind as not good enough is actually closer to winning a title than he's been at any time with the Clippers.
Mike
Not wanting to suffer through a rebuild when you career is reaching a mature/ advanced stage is not a character flaw or personality disorder.
He wanted better, which is not unreasonable.
So, you wouldn't mind if your significant other ditches you for someone better looking? And when the Celtics started their rebuilding process and went 25-57, did you stop watching and following the team because you wanted something "better?"
Overwrought fans can certainly be ridiculous and annoying, but there is one thing even worse. The anti-fan who acts like they have no emotional investment in anything.
Mike
I strongly believe that all the hate towards Doc Rivers is utterly ridiculous.
If a star player (e.g. Paul George) chooses to leave his team because they are going through a rebuild, and he doesn't want to suffer though that, somehow almost everybody is ok with that.
But when a coach prefers to leave a team that's going through a rebuild so he can go to a more competitive situation, that's disloyal.
Why should the two be seen any different?
Doc already had to coach through one terrible Celtics team through a rebuild. He had a chance to move to a better position, and he took it. He would have known that Danny Ainge had his eyes on Brad Stevens anyway, and I've got no doubts he would have had long hard talks to Ainge about it. And if Ainge didn't have a plan B that he really liked in place, then I'm sure Doc would not have walked and left Boston with nobody.
The situation worked out well for all parties involved - it was a win/win situation. People should get over it.