LOS ANGELES — Doc Rivers has seen challenges before, as when he went 102-144 in his first three seasons in Boston, before Danny Ainge got him Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to go with Paul Pierce.
The rest became Celtics history, leading to their 2008 title and the one they came so close to in 2010 when they led the Lakers by 13 in the second half of Game 7.
Not that the Celtics had been forgotten before that… as much as Boston fans had tried in the 22 years that had passed since their last title in 1986.
Wrote local blogger Ken Tremendous after the 2007 KG trade capped a busy summer on the local scene:
“When I heard Randy Moss was coming to the Pats, I thought, ‘Finally, a long ball threat for Brady!
“When the Sox acquired Eric Gagne, it was, ‘Two closers! We’re so lucky!’
“And when news of the Kevin Garnett deal came across the wire I thought, ‘I only wish the Celtics were still in Boston.’
“Then I was told that they are still in Boston… so great!”
Now Rivers’ cachet among peers is surpassed only by Gregg Popovich, who leads him in titles, 5-1. One reason is because of what Doc did with the Big Three and young role players he developed like Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins.
Like Popovich, Rivers found a balance between toughness and warmth that made him a players’ coach and an authority figure whose guys allow him to kick their backsides with no loss of respect.
LeBron James left Miami, because the Heat’s time seemed to have come, for Cleveland, because it was home. However, Bron insiders agree that his real preference was the Clippers, though it was all but impossible under the cap rules.
Insiders list two reasons: 1) Bron is close to Chris Paul, the godfather to one of his sons; and 2) he would have loved to play for Rivers.
If Pop plays the Grinch in public, Doc is the quotable coach who always says the right thing, a gift tested to the max last spring in the crisis atmosphere following owner Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling’s racist remarks.
Rivers assumed leadership of the whole organization, once driving to the downtown office to calm alarmed employees. He and the team dissociated themselves from the owner. The players shed their warmups with the Clipper logo before Game 3 of their series with the Warriors. Doc refused to take Sterling’s phone calls.
Instead of a distraction, it became a bond. They beat Golden State in seven, then seemed about to take a 3-2 lead over the Thunder in Oklahoma City.
Unfortunately, with a 104-102 lead in the closing seconds, Chris Paul was whistled for breathing in the vicinity of Russell Westbrook as he squeezed off a desperate three-pointer a stride past the arc. Westbrook made all three free throws for a 105-104 victory. Instead of closing the Thunder out at home in Game 6, the Clippers were closed out.
Hey, it’s the West. A single play may be all that separates one top team, like the 59-win Thunder, from another like the 57-win Clippers.
This wasn’t quite that. With Sterling forced to sell, the new owner, Steve Ballmer, who had forked over $2 billion to buy the team, committed another $50 million in a five-year deal for Rivers as team president and coach.
Only Popovich has that much power, and he isn’t expected to stay around and use it another five years.
On the other hand, that Celtic tradition Rivers lived up to was old and dried up. To be noticed in Los Angeles, the Clippers have to live up to the Laker tradition, even if that’s the Lakers can’t and won’t soon.
It’s still a Laker town, even if they can’t compete with the Clippers, who finished 41 games ahead of them the last two seasons and are 8-1 against them over the last two-plus seasons, winning by an average of 18 a game.
Laker stories still get eight times as many hits as Clipper stories in local newspapers. Laker game broadcasts on radio get ratings nine times as high as those of the Clippers.
(It’s not just the Clippers. During the baseball playoffs, Laker exhibition stories got more hits than the Dodgers’ games against the Cardinals.)
It’s that kind of town. So what if the Clippers have made the playoffs four seasons in a row? The Lakers didn’t become who they were by making the playoffs but by winning titles—10 since 1980, the most since the Celtics’ dynasty with Bill Russell ended in 1969.
The Lakers still talk the talk. Before this season’s first game against the Clippers, Coach Byron Scott dismissed the notion of a local rivalry, noting, “Obviously, our biggest rival has always been the Celtics. They have 17 banners and we have 16. That’s a rivalry.”
Someone mentioned that the Clippers have two division banners up.
“Excuse me?” said Scott. “NBA championship banners.”
Those are the banners Rivers covered up with pictures of his own players for their games. Nevertheless, being a Clipper means having to take all the Lakers’ BS, or reply, make it into a story and wind up looking foolish.
“That’s why I don’t say anything about it,” said Rivers the other day. “To me, it’s all white noise. My focus is on, you become a winner, it will become very loud in this city or any other city. So that’s the goal for me. All the other stuff is noise.”
Challenges, he has a few more. The paper-thin differences between the seven West teams now on pace to win 57 games or more, magnify weaknesses, like the Clippers’ small forward position.
Matt Barnes, a streaky shooter who’s best as a reserve, starts. Jared Dudley, whom Rivers signed, fell on his face, obliging Doc to give up a 2017 No. 1 to get Milwaukee to take Dudley’s last two years worth $8.5 million off their hands.
Learning the personnel part of his job on the fly, Rivers brought in former assistant Dave Wohl and bumped current assistant Kevin Eastman upstairs.
The team started 5-4, perhaps luxuriating in the post-Sterling, non-crisis atmosphere. The Clippers are 11-2 since, so, no they’re not frauds
Unfortunately, they haven’t been champions of anything yet, either, and this isn’t Boston.
Hall of Fame writer Mark Heisler is a founding member and regular contributor to SheridanHoops, the Los Angeles Daily News and Forbes.com. Follow him on Twitter.
20/11/2012 – 12:14pmHola Hagomou, qué tal? Hombre la portada de hoy no viene mucho a cuento, hoy juega Valencia y Barcelona, no el RM y meten con calzador a Javi Garcia, de pasado madridista y a Silva, uno de los muchos amores platónicos de Marca. Titular destilando manipulación, chulerÃa y arrogancia, made in Marcaca “Aqui será dit2eenfrRe1;… sÃ, será diferente, eso seguro. Y mañana, como tú dices, portada para el cara-vinagre o para el cara-chulo, no importa si el Valencia gana 8-0 y el FCB 9-0. En Marca nunca nada es diferente. Nada cambia, todo permanece.
Well if this article was the greatest waste of time in my day, yet another rehash of LA been a Lakers town, who really gives a flying f**k, it is of no relevance to anything of importance
It’s not a Lakers town.. It’s a Kobe town. (and to a lesser extent a Swaggy P town.) Nobody cares about Jeremy Lin or Ed Davis. There’s no Carlos Boozer stories getting clicks. It’s Kobe. The man is global icon and one of the greatest to ever lace up.
When Kobe’s gone and the Lakers have Randle and whatever two lottery picks they’ll get this year and next, the diehards will still be all in, but the casual Lakers fans who watch 1 game a month and just for a quarter or two will check out. I don’t think they’ll even switch allegiances to the Clippers, they’ll just stop pseudo-caring about basketball.