Doc Rivers to Celtics-"Please Start Playing Well So I Look Like a Good Coach Again"

Slightly popular coach afraid team's play may affect his image

By Daniel Strauss

A distraught Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers had a closed door meeting with his entire team after Sunday's heartbreaking one point loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, telling his team that if they didn't start playing well again, he would continue to look like a bad coach.

"You guys are making it look more and more like I had nothing to do with that championship season," Rivers said, doing his best not to make eye contact with anyone in the room. "Stop getting injured, or playing injured, or whatever you're doing. Just make me look good again, guys! I need this!"

Many had speculated after the Celtics dismal 2006-2007 campaign, during which the team finished with a 24 and 58 record, that Rivers might not be a particularly good NBA coach. But after the Celtics purchased an NBA title the following season by adding Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to their lineup, the court of public opinion swung back in Rivers' favor. The once embattled coach became a citywide hero, and people actually started to get behind Paul Pierce's claim that he was the best player in the NBA, despite his previous season and stats without Garnett and Allen.
"I wanted him [Rivers] fired after 2007. Boy was I wrong," said one Boston fan. "I think he showed us all in '08 that he was great at coaching what was essentially a team of all-stars desperate to win a title. But now...well, I just don't know what to think!"

Amidst an onslaught of questions from reporters, Rivers did all he could to hold his ground.

"Look, the fact of the matter is, either they're going to have to start playing like they did two years ago again, or people are going to think I don't know what I'm doing," he told reporters, after the game. "And I do know what I'm doing. One hundred percent."

When asked by one reporter if he thought maybe a change from the current triangle offense the Celtics are running might help the team improve, Rivers replied he hadn't considered the idea, but was thinking about lining up a few different players at wide receiver.