Doc was great during the Big Three Era. He was very much made in the same mold as the Phil Jackson, Larry Bird, K.C. Jones types in the sense he was great for a contending team and juggling egos, but not the greatest for a rebuild. He also handled the Boston limelight quite well--not something to be underrated in this town.
I also think he is way overly vilified by this board for "not playing young players." Time and again we heard this while people conveniently ignored that a) he played guys like Rondo, Perk, BBD, and Powe and b) there isn't one example of a youngster who miraculously blossomed after leaving the dark clutches of Doc. Instead, we had the likes of Bill Walker, JaJuan Johnson, and J.R. Giddens who simply weren't NBA caliber players.
The only thing that annoys me now is the victim card he is pulling with the Clippers. Doc made an inherently selfish decision to jump ship to LA because he knew it would be a better situation for him. And I'm ok with that. But he did it fully aware he was going to work for an owner that had a history of racism and mismanagement. He ultimately decided that the potential gain was worth the risk. And that's perfectly acceptable to do. Many people have made similar decisions.
But he should stop acting so shocked and upset and victimized by the whole Sterling situation. If he was really that against working for someone like Sterling, he should have stayed in Boston where he had a stellar ownership/management team.
TP for this. Saved me a lot of typing.
Doc was phenomenal (to steal his favorite adjective) here but I'm happy with Stevens now in our situation.
Doc went to a very talented team but went to play for a noted racist. It just happened to blow up when he was there. Everyone in the NBA knew about it.
But if he stays there long term I think the team will be better off now more than ever. The team was bad under Sterling for a reason. New ownership could be a great thing there.
Not sure what jumps out at me more:
The fact that Doc has fond memories of Boston or the fact that there were people actually going up to him, pleading with him for the Celts to NOT trade Al Jefferson and Gerald Green? 
Why wouldn't Doc have fond memories of Boston?
No reason why he wouldn't.
To me, that wasn't the story of the article.
The story of the article was that there were people who actually didn't want to see the KG trade, similarly to how there's people now who don't want to see the Love trade happen.
I am wondering if this strange attachment to unproven younger players is a Boston thing or if it goes on in every major sports city.
It's every city.
I feel like it's going away more now though, with so many fans being arm chair GMs these days.
We see a lot of demand to trade certain players on the team (now mostly with by far our best player and long tenured player and former champion AND captain)... so yeah it can go either way.
An important factor, I believe, is where the player is at in development and potential. For example, Gerald Green was still a guy who could figure it out and seemingly be an All Star (did, to an extent, like this season... so took a while and isn't an All Star anyways). Jefferson was playing defense away from being one of the leagues major stars too (he also never did that).
With guys like Sully and Olynyk and Smart it could be like that. Especially, I think, if the rebuild takes a while and we get attached watching them grow.
Topic: Doc Rivers during Summer League comments on the Boston Celtics community (Read 5709 times)