LOS ANGELES — He’s not going to tell us today. Probably not tomorrow, either. But there’s certainly a chance that Doc Rivers has coached his final game after six years on the Celtics bench.
“I don’t know,’’ Rivers said late Thursday night after walking out of a teary Celtic locker room in the wake of an 83-79 loss to the Lakers in Game 7 of the Finals. “I’m going to wait. I’m going to go and watch my kids play AAU basketball, and I’m going to wait a little bit.’’
Today is Father’s Day, and Doc wants to just be a dad for a while. Maybe for a few years. His son Jeremiah, a basketball player, will be a senior at Indiana this year. His daughter Callie, a volleyball player, will be a senior at the University of Florida. His son Austin is one of the top 10 high school basketball players in the country and is going into his senior season at Winter Park High near Orlando.
That’s a lot of ballgames. A lot of senior years. A lot of final games, final hugs, graduation gowns, and mini-fridges toted up and down four flights of dormitory stairs. What dad wouldn’t want to be there for all of that? Especially when you have the money (Rivers makes $5 million annually with the Celtics) and the ability to come back and get another NBA job any time you are ready. Let’s not forget that Rivers could easily slide into a cushy TV gig. He’s been in the booth before and, of course, he’s great at that, too.
Red Auerbach never moved his wife and two daughters to Boston when he was coach of the Celtics. Red lived in a hotel room at the Lenox Hotel (he had his own hot plate to heat up leftover Chinese food). Auerbach was 48 years old when he retired from the bench after one last seventh game in the Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Rivers is 48. His family stayed in Orlando when he took the job in Boston six years ago. He has won a championship and his stock will never be higher. He has a year left on his contract, but it’s not the worst time to walk away from the bench.
The 2009-10 Celtics were not an easy bunch to coach. Boston’s locker room was a room in transition — young egos and old egos. Glen Davis had a fistfight with a friend and took a seat on the shelf to start the season. Rasheed Wallace was openly defiant just about all the time. There was tension at the trading deadline when Ray Allen’s name was floated. The Celtics repeatedly blew double-digit leads and looked old. Paul Pierce missed a bunch of games. Kevin Garnett missed a bunch of games. They went 27-27 over the last 54 games.
Think about that number. The Celtics were a .500 team for two-thirds of the NBA season, yet managed to get to the seventh game of the Finals? It says a lot about Doc. It also says a lot about the difficulty of coaching this group.
