[The Ringer] Doc Rivers: “I think it was time.” Bill Simmons asks Doc Rivers if he believes he’s done with coaching after stepping down as head coach of the Bucks.
Doc will be a team president somewhere within two years. Mark it.
Joe Dumars living off of 2004 the same way Doc living off of 2008 lol
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Something like 7 ECFs in a row. You HAD to go thru the Pistons
I looked it up and it was every ecf 2003-2008 so it was 6 but still crazy that’s more than the warriors dynasty
Wdym you don’t know if it was that crazy? Detroit was the powerhouse in the east for damn near a decade
20 years without Det is wild. 2003-04 was the first year I watched basketball (being a younger fan)- it was probably what defensive minded basketball truly looked like.
The east was pretty damn bad those years, though
For the sonics lol
C’mon now that’s just mean lmao
Another one to his resume
Be careful buddy. You’re the one that’s about to start a new franchise and are going to need some “hall of fame” leadership to get the team started off on the right foot.
Good.
Do you think he googled himself to come to that realisation?
It probably came after, of all people, Kyle Kuzma dismissed his “critiques” of the team.
Kuzma has just as many rings as Doc does
I have my issues with him as a player but Kuzma was nothing but a professional this year. I have no complaints.
Took his benching for a bullshit reason like a pro and did every role he was asked to do.
He was definitely a leader in the locker room.
Kuz was very happy doing the little things on the title team, I think he got an unduly bad rap playing for tanking teams that weren’t trying to win anything.
Good Lord 🤣
Honestly, I kinda wish he would keep going. It’s a huge weight to not have him coaching the Bucks anymore, but it’ll forever be a stain on the org that we were the last schmucks to employ him. Let that honor go to some other team
I know this conversation has been beaten to death but it’s still so bizarre seeing the two of them so friendly with each other considering how much Bill shit on Doc
Doc will get along with anyone if it’s convenient for him - he’s supposedly a pretty decent guy in person too but he’s clearly an even better politician to have kept getting gigs throughout the industry for so long
I think Bill is also the kind of guy who might say XYZ bad things about you in public but would suck up to you in person.
They also both understand the parts the other play in their industry. Bill’s job is to say inflammatory things and Doc knows his job is going to get caught in the crossfire of that. It doesn’t have to lead to bad blood in a personal level.
This is the correct answer.
Yeah it’s just being professional. You don’t have to like each other to work with each other really.
Or it could just be that he had a winning record at every single coaching stop except Milwaukee.
you must be new
As a Sixers fan have you not realized by now Embiid will never be healthy?
How did you jump from praising Doc to this comment about Embiid? Lol
while they continued to gloss over his numerous playoff chokes as they keep handing him bag after bag
The playoff chokes are overblown. The Celtics went the Finals twice and won a title. The Celtics were the only team he coached that was capable of winning a title.
The Sixers were never gonna win with Simmons.
The Magic never had TMac and Hill healthy at the same time.
The Clippers were never gonna win with Kwahi and PG3 due to their injury history.
The CP3 Clippers were never title contenders.
Overblown? lol dude has blown multiple 3-1 leads, didnt seem to actually give a shit about coaching in Milwaukee and gave canned answers every presser.
Austin? Is that you?
Out of those chokes, the one he deserves the most criticism is losing to Denver in the bubble.
Found Glenn’s burner
The team was more than healthy in 2020, up 3-1 in the series against the Nuggets and in game 5-7 came out of halftime with a lead and still couldn’t deliver. GTFO with this bullshit.
Hey Doc! Is the current retirement going well so far?
Yeah, during Doc’s final year on the Clippers Bill was laying into him constantly. And I think he had hinted multiple times that there was personal beef between the two of them.
Then Doc got fired, and all of a sudden he was on Bill’s podcast as a regular guest (until Doc wormtongue’d his way into the Bucks job). And Bill has had pretty much nothing but good things to say about him since.
Because I think a thing that explains a lot of Doc Rivers career is that he’s a politician more than anything.
Results don’t matter, the only thing that matters is kissing enough ass and being likeable enough.
The amount of cynicism from fans on here is astounding. Heaven forbid he might just be chill, or poses any characteristics that aren’t negative for that matter.
Besides the fact that he’s not a good head coach?
Doc is a good coach. It’s just people trying to call him a great/elite coach were tripping. He has led multiple team to top seeds in the conference for years. Hes just not at the calibre to be up there with guys like Kerr, Pop, and etc
He got handed the keys to Ferraris and crashed them. Except here, in Milwaukee I don’t think anything mattered with the amount of diva bullshit, but that’s also diva bullshit that he should’ve had control over so it didn’t get this ridiculous.
This is great for everyone. Doc Rivers retires richer than god, and nobody has to look up his resume ever again.
Inb4 yet another team overpays to get him out of “retirement”
Are any team FOs even that dumb at this point tho??
Oh wait.
I’m sorry Kings fans :(
Bro, he literally was just your teams coach
He’ll be calling nationally broadcasted games next year and a podcast regular so anyone listening to those will lose.
He won’t say he’s officially retired because if he does, he can say goodbye to his 10 million dollars he’s owed next season, because if he officially retire, he won’t be owed that money
I don’t even understand how we’re required to pay him if he went to ownership and said he was done.
That sounds like quitting to me.
Critical thinking…
He didn’t actually “quit”… Ownership just canned and gave him an out/cover story so he wouldn’t look buns in a year he’s getting inducted into the HoF
Duh
I dont think thats how that works
I don’t follow bill simmons for the last decade but there was a time I was an avid reader of his column. Back before the big three I remember him publishing a letter where they compared doc rivers unfavorably to corky from life goes on (for the uninitiated he was a character with Down syndrome played by an actor with Down syndrome Chris Burke)
So it is kind of funny to see them be chummy now
Did he actually have more ups than downs? I’m not so sure
Yes he’s a top 6 winningest coach all time
Blowing 3-1 leads is the only stain on his career which is like a fraction of his losses. But obviously extremely high stakes and amplified but over all. He’s been to playoffs 20+ times not a lot of coaches can say that
I am not gonna act like this guy is the best coach wver, but I don’t understand all this pushback when they had such a dogshit roster. I mean who’s the 3rd best guy, Kuzma? He wouldn’t be in the 10 man rosters of most contenders. No Giannis for half the year, then they decided to tank
Can tell you didn’t watch a single Bucks game this season
Yeah ok, which part of my comment was wrong? Giannis indeed missed half the season and y’all tanked the last part of the season, and you have a dogshit roster. Were you supposed to get more than 32 wins?
He’s gotten fired from four orgs lol
No he didn’t????? He’s been fired from 2 teams, Orlando and Philly. He asked to be let go from Boston because he didnt want to rebuild, so they traded him to the Clippers, then he stepped down from the Clips cuz they were a constant shitshow, and as he said in this clip he didn’t get fired from the Bucks he decided to retire.
No coach leaves an organization without getting fired. He obviously hasn’t been good for a while but getting fired 4 times 20+ years of coaching isn’t notable
And still gets rehired. No coach resigns. Teams will always fire them because they’re on contracts
He’s not a very good coach.
He is a good coach. He’s just not a great coach.
You don’t get to coach 2k games in the NBA if you’re not a good coach. And damn close to .600 for those two thousand games. Winning playoff record.
His coaching career will probably always be summed up by underachievement given some of the talent he was lucky enough to have, but there’s a reason he wasn’t forced out of some of those teams sooner given the lack of Finals appearances.
He has a winning record because he always coaches teams stacked with talent. Any average coach would be winning with the teams he had.
There are only a handful of coaches in NBA history who fans will actually call a “good coach.”
Doc Rivers is 6th all time in career wins. He averaged 47.5 wins per year for 27 years (pro-rated for shortened seasons). You don’t dumb luck your way to winning more games than Phil Jackson just by being good at politics and sticking around a long time.
He’s obviously talking in the context of the NBA? What you’re saying doesn’t even need to be said. When someone says “Bronny isn’t a great player” they don’t mean amongst all human beings, but amongst his peers in the NBA.
Even in the context of the NBA he is a good coach.
They said he isn’t very good. The person I responded to even agreed he isn’t great.
WTF are you talking about?
There’s only 5 coaches in NBA history with more wins than him. There’s only 7 modern with a better win percentage with over 1,000 games coached.
So please, tell me what metrics you’re using to judge his career relative to other coaches.
Haters can hate all you want. Doc is a great coach who was let down by crap, overpaid ballers. I hope he gets big money to a team president in LA or the bay area soon.
Doc may have been overrated, but he was a solid coach. Multiple finals appearances, a championship, consistently making playoffs. He also has blown a lot of series and underachieved for the clippers and bucks. But his resume speaks for himself
His resume says that he coached 12 hall of fame players, and got 1 championship. No other coach has done less with more
Damn. So no way to get him to coach OKC with all their new picks despite being at the top already? Come back Doc! Only you can save us.
Like Thanos sitting down, watching the sun rise on a grateful universe. Except he went 97–103 with the Bucks, needed 6 more wins to perfectly balance the win-loss record.
I can’t see any team offering Doc a HC job
We also said that before the Bucks job.
I see at least 15 teams salivating at the chance. That’s how dumb most front offices are.
Only to return as the Chief Medical Officer
Just wanna share my favorite Doc Rivers moment
https://youtu.be/-BkOW7OllBE?si=XhOR67F5yG-yaS-O
Doc Rivers, the next GM of the Milwaukee Bucks
Did Doc ever retrieve that money he hid in Staples Center?
But have you looked at his resume.
By far the most overrated coach ever n NBA history. Please retire.
Doc on which team he’s going to ravage next: “I’ve got my eyes on the spurs. I know I can make that team gutter.”
He was a decent coach ngl
Congratulations to Doc!
But Doc, why now, why not ten years ago?
Finally
It was time before your stint in Milwaukee
He’ll be gone for a year and then come back when some team inexplicably calls lol.
They’re both idiots
Doc really never could quite get out of his own damn way to have a chance to be a truly SUCCESFUL head coach and leader.
Way past his time for this, tbh
“If we do this…” as in trade Giannis?
Rest in Piss, shitheel. Thanks for burning our franchise to the ground, we never wanted you here anyways
I do understand he isn’t the only one to blame, but 3 years was a long, slow, painful death. May Gianni Vowels find joy in his next home
Dude would be a great politician bcuz he can spin total garbage into something palatable and “positive”. Full of equal parts empty/generic platitudes. Good riddance “Doc”. P.s. would have alot more respect for him if he simply said “I failed Milwaukee”. Instead of literally one of his last statements (on Bucks) basically saying Giannis didnt have enough talent around him to succeed. I.e. it wasnt Docs fault oh no it was all on the players not named Giannis and their lack of talent. Underhanded talking out of both sides of his neck passing the “buck”. Typical. We were warned by 76ers fans. Anyways, Fuck you “Doc” sincerely from Milwaukee 🖕🖕
I would love it to come back home and have a job somewhere in the Celtics org maybe something lowkey, as Boston was the only spot he really had major success lol
I prayed for times like this
See you in hell Rivers
Doc’s face looks like it hasn’t fully rendered with that lighting, like a San Andreas character
This is probably just me being petty, but the, “I’ve given X years of my life” part rubs me the wrong way. You weren’t in public service, you were being paid millions and millions of dollars to play, talk about, or coach a game.