Doc Rivers career so far in the NBA has been about helping out: dishing assists as a player in the league and getting along well with players as their coach. But lately Doc has not been helping the officials or himself with repeated tirades after Doc Rivers Celtics take a loss in the regular season or the playoffs. So far in the 2009 NBA season and playoffs, Doc has collected $65,000 in fines.
Before Doc Rivers coaching career began, he was a player in the NBA. Doc began in 1983 when he was drafted in the second round by the Atlanta Hawks. When an injury sidelined the normal starter, Doc came up from off the bench to average 12 points and 10 assists per game. He was a distant second wheel to the “human highlight” Dominique Wilkins, who was dunking around the league and scorching teams. After playing eight seasons for the Hawks, Doc bounced around the league for a while before finishing his career in San Antonio, the player role he is best remembered for. Although his points were down to about 5 per game, in his short time in each game he contributed rebounds, assists and some steals behind Spurs starter Avery Johnson.
Doc Rivers coaching career began in Orlando with the Magic during the 1999 season with a bang. His first season coaching, he won the NBA Coach of the Year Award when he took the cellar-dwelling Magic and brought them to the brink of the playoffs. Doc Rivers Boston Celtics career as their coach began in 2004, after a one year term as part of the ABC NBA television announcing duo. His first few years in Boston as their coach were not remarkable. With a ever-changing cast of young talent coming in and out of the lineup around star Paul Pierce, Rivers could not get his team deep into the playoffs. That all changed, of course, when the Doc Rivers Boston Celtics became the NBA Champions after the 2008 season, beating the Los Angeles Lakers soundly in the finals.
Perhaps it is the weight of expectations that come with winning but Doc Rivers coaching has been overshadowed in the 2009 season by his after-game rants about officiating. Coming during or just after Celtic’s losses, Rivers has been verbally abusing officials and has been getting tossed from the arena. A self-described one-man stimulus package, Rivers has run up a bill of $65,000 due to the NBA League Office so far this season and in one rant after a loss to Chicago was assessed a $25,000 fine. Doc Rivers Boston coaching rants are no different than any other in the league: when the team loses the crew in black and white takes the rap. Rivers is probably more interesting though because he is generally such a congenial person so his verbal assaults seem out of character. Just like every other coach in the league, the only effect of the complaints has been a stiff fine.
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I don’t watch a lot of basketball, but the games I have seen have a ton of energy going on, coaches, players, fans included. It’s an exciting game, and I know those guys are fired up, especially in the playoffs. I know a lot of players and coaches do the rant thing as a ploy, or just as part of their “thing”. I don’t know about Doc Rivers. Sounds like it’s uncharacteristic, so maybe it’s real.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I am real tired of seeing these antics by so-called “professional” athletes. I know they’re really into the zone, and it’s a high intensity situation, but I wonder how much the celebrity status has gone to the heads of the modern “super star”. Call me old school if you want, but it was rare to see big league players in any sport throw tantrums and show disrespect on the field or the court. They had a name for guys that did that sort of thing: bush league. Which is where this kind of stuff belongs.