Oct 8, 3:25 pm EDT
For the longest time, there’s been a belief that
Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers planned to stay on the job until the Big Three had grown too old, until this champion run completed. He would return to his Florida home, reboot a season with a TV job and thrust himself onto the market as the NBA’s most desirable coaching candidate. Rivers could pick his contender, name his price.
And that could’ve come with the Miami Heat, with a team president, Pat Riley, whom sources say has Rivers at the top of his list should he ever choose to replace young coach Erik Spoelstra. In the final season of a contract that’ll pay him $6.5 million this season, Rivers came to the preseason with something else on his mind: Why would he ever want to leave general manager Danny Ainge, who gives him so much trust and talent, and an ownership that’s gone so deep into the luxury tax in this championship arms race?
Doc Rivers could want to keep coaching the Celtics even after Paul Pierce retires.
(Getty Images)
Rivers doesn’t want to discuss a contract extension, doesn’t want to think much about tomorrow with so much on the line now. And yet, the prospect of staying a career Celtics coach has never resonated so strongly with him.
“Two years ago, I didn’t have that thought,