Doc Rivers is a Hall of Famer with a complicated NBA coaching legacy
Dude got lucky once and has been riding those coattails for decades. I’m not surprised as the basketball Hall of Fame is a bit of a joke with such a low bar to get people enshrined but still, I don’t think he’s a hof caliber coach.
I mean, he’s up there for the most regular season wins of all time and has a chip. Ofc you can attribute to that as just being gifted good teams, but he does have a case imo
Yeah he did take 2 games off the most ridiculous basketball of all time with Lou Will, Montreal Harrell, Tobias Harris, rookie SGA, and Danillo Gallinari. He’s had some good coaching moments with less than stellar rosters
Coach of the Year with Orlando
Yeah he would be the only non Hall of Famer among the top 10 winningest coaches in NBA history. Basketball is among the more inclusive Halls, it would be weird to exclude him just because his teams have choked in the playoffs a few times, despite the ring and the regular season wins.
I’ll never understand how Doc’s profile in the NBA became so high. One chip with 3 HoFers slightly past their primes, dipped the second the rebuild started.
He sucked up to the media like crazy so they’d pump his tires while throwing everyone he could under the bus.
That’s part of the game, like it or not. Media savvy, reputation, ability to actually stay in the NBA for so long because of his reputation, enough to win accolades. It’s all a soiree.
But also, Doc has had some moments beyond the 08 championship, as some people here noted,
I do reminisce about the 09-14 Celtics quite a bit. It might be a bit of circular logic here - he was able to play the reputation/office politics game so well that players were willing to run thru a wall for him.
Overall it’s interesting. I’d say ultimately we’re a social animal, and its never gonna be 100% a meritocracy.
It became high when he was coaching Orlando. He then won a championship with the Celtics (stacked team).
In retrospect Orlando was probably lucky and the Celtic probably would have won being coached by anyone.
There was a period where Doc was a very good coach that is now overlooked because of how it all ended. If Garnett didn’t get injured there’s a good chance he ends up with two titles with us. Was the right guy for the job at that time and I’m thankful for his contribution to the Celtics, even though it ended in a weird way
We win 3 chips if Spo is the coach instead of Doc
Is the new coach going to heal KG’s knees? If so, I agree
New coach wouldn’t choke series when we have 3 wins
new coach wouldn’t get to three wins
Spo without a doubt would LMAO
same Spo that choked away 2011?
Spo choked that or was it Bron lmfao
a better coach would’ve known the Heimlich
Nothing would have revived 2011 Bron.
maybe a Doctor
Lol idk about that. He won 2 with LeBron and never again
I mean LeBron shit the bed in the 2011 finals, hard to fault Spo for that. After LeBron left Miami I don’t think Spo ever had a championship caliber team, or at least didn’t have anything like what we had in Boston for those ~5 years. Spo also clearly exceeded expectations on multiple occasions like with the Butler teams.
He’s probably the best coach in the league for the past ~15 years outside of Pop, I don’t know why we need to have a championship or bust mentality with someone who hasn’t really had a championship roster post-LeBron
I just think it’s a bit generous to say he wins 3 and everyone just goes oh yup of course he would he’s amazing. He had the best player of the generation and still the T E A M did not win 3.
you see, the difference is that Spoelstra would have won way more except for reasons, whereas Doc managed to win that one title only because of reasons.
Even as someone who hates the Heat, I cant deny Spo has made chicken salad out of chicken shit repeatedly. And you can’t say they haven’t developed a few good players over that time as well. Maybe not face of the league guys bit solid players nonetheless.
We don’t lose to the Lakers with Spo. That’s two chips right there
Ill say 2.
Doc rivers is a legend
https://preview.redd.it/aen38znhhkjh1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b5969068954fb6e0dac6faf4b767e483afacaecf
#34 Celtic legend there to support him through everything 💚☘️
Maybe a hot take but I’m fine with Doc being in the Hall of Fame. He’s got the 6th most wins ever, a 58% winning percentage (higher than guys like Spo, Larry Brown, and Don Nelson), and he’s coached the fourth most games in NBA history.
Yeah the playoffs aren’t that great (~50% win rate, 114-112, which is good enough for fourth most wins and second most losses), but if we’re judging coaches by their playoff resume then you’re also docking guys like Don Nelson and Jerry Sloan (both of which are Hall of Fame coaches).
Doc’s a great floor raiser who’s been coaching for over two decades, I’m fine with him being a Hall of Famer.
Other than the three years that he had the Big 3 leading the locker room plus Thibs running the defense, Doc has underachieved everywhere he’s been, while coming up with a laundry list of excuses. It’s never ever his fault when his team sucks.
Dude also had prime CP3 and Blake Griffin and barely made the playoffs
they won 50+ games in the stacked West
It’s Spoestra’s fault that the Heat suck, by the way. That’s why he’s a better coach.
that’s why you don’t look at the internet and social media when considering who should be in the HOF
thank you for your time
Celtics actually got an unprotected 1st round pick for him. Unfortunately RJ Hunters career get derailed on the way to Springfield.
Did any of you notice Danny Ainge at Doc’s enshrinement? He’s looking skinnier than he used to. Hope he’s well.
Doc was great, overachiever with teams in regular season, and never lost a celtics playoff series that he should’ve won. Great career!
This comes up often, along with a whole army of folks saying he shouldn’t be in the HOF because all of his HOF credentials are only because X and only because Y
It’s a good reminder that for a lot of folks you argue with on the internet, counterfactuals are more real than actual reality
Does complicated mean “he’s not very good”?
The bb hall of fame has been the hall of very good for a long time. It’s basically the college, nba and international hall of fame. Meaning there are a lot of ways to build a hall of fame career.
Doc Rivers is a fucking BUM
Don’t understand how this dudes hall of fame. Also the hall of fame shit is dead after what they did to bill recently. But doc is not a hall of fame coach
Good personality, good media presence, good at utilising his coaches/players to an extent. Think a lot of players enjoyed freedom of they wanted to play under him which both benefited them and hurt them.
He’s an interesting case where he had good players but underwhelming benches where I wouldn’t ever put them as favourites to win, and he didn’t really overachieve on any of them except one year with Celtics in 06-07 and getting some dead teams to playoffs.
In general his tactics do seem somewhat underwhelming in crucial games in playoffs especially in more recent years. Does that disqualify him as a hof coach ? Idk but I’m generally ok with him going in.
I feel like the NBA HoF is more a popularity contract than actual performance. If you have a few NBA owners give you contract so that you stick around for 15 years, no matter how poor you did, it’s like they put you on the Hall based on years of service or familiarity. Lots of guys like that that don’t belong, Doc, Matumbo, etc
Hall of Mid Candidate
Doc was a good player. Probably not HOF worthy, but HOVG.
Coach Rivers was also good. Not a HOF worthy coach, but Hall of Won a Title.
Put ‘em together and Doc Rivers was HOF worthy. He is absolutely one of the most famous basketball figures of the past half century.
Go to YouTube. Search DOC BIRD TRAINERS LAP HAWKS BENCH.
That story is HOF quality.
So I kinda agree with the first two parts, but I’m pretty sure this simply isn’t how the hall of fame works (at least for basketball). You get inducted as either a player or a coach, or sometimes once for each. But you can’t just combine the accolades from the two parts of their career into one hall of fame resume.
Doc Rivers is being inducted into the hall solely as a coach. To me he’s not deserving of that. I’m grateful for his time in Boston, but I also think we could’ve won in 08 with probably probably ~15 other coaches in the league at that point
> hall of fame works
It’s right there in the name. Fame. It isn’t the Hall of Indisputably Awesome.
The Basketball HOF understands that it is a history museum and it inducts, and honors, _everyone_. The press release is irrelevant: Doc is being inducted for his overall service to basketball. Coach is…what it is.
Doc is indisputably part of the story of basketball over the past 40 decades.
https://np.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1ooc9c5/is_it_possible_for_a_nonhall_of_fame_player_to/
Most over rated coach in any sport of all time.