After a 13-year NBA career that saw the latest guest on NBATV’s “#NBATogether With Ernie Johnson” that saw him play for four different teams, including the one he current coaches he went into television doing color analysis for Turner Sports as well as for another team that he played for. He then go on to coach the squad that calls Walt Disney World home; then one of the league’s most storied franchises and now with the aforementioned other L.A. team that prior to the league’s suspension had a real serious chance of winning a title this season.
The conversation via video chat between the studio host for NBA on TNT and “Inside the NBA,” Ernie Johnson and head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers Glenn “Doc” Rivers, who played for the so-called little brother of the Lakers in the 1991-92 season said that his job during the COVID-19 Pandemic has been “two-fold” in consistently communicating with his players, where they are doing Zoom workouts everyday in groups of five, three times a day, led by head athletic trainer Jasen Powell and assistants Tommy Murdock and Randy Shelton, and head strength and conditioning coach Daniel Shapiro. The players heart monitors are on the screen during the workouts, where their individual weights are checked.
The second job Rivers said he has had during this time is he being that the vision of “hope” that the Clippers will resume their championship chase this season, especially with that they did this offseason bringing in two-time champion and Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and fellow perennial All-Star Paul George back in the summer.
“I have to give our guys hope. We have this saying right now with our team called ‘Win the Wait.’ And so, we’re trying to win the weight meaning, we believe there’s going to be a season. We really do, and if there is, we cannot let this disruption be the reason we don’t win.”
Also, during the interview, Johnson brought up that he watched online the second half of the 1982 FIBA World Championship, where legendary play-by-play commentator Dick Stockton was on the call for CBS. Rivers was a playing for Team U.S.A. when they took on the Soviet Union and lost in that Final Round game 95-94 on August 28 of that year.
Rivers, who was playing collegiately for the Marquette Golden Eagles then calls being a part of that team the “biggest” moment of his life.
The moment was also a tough one because Rivers missed the game-winning shot in the closing seconds, but he was voted the MVP of that year’s FIBA World Championships, which is the only time that has ever happened in the history of FIBA play.
What is also different today from back then is that Team U.S.A. was made up of collegiate players instead of NBA players playing against as Rivers said, “grown men.”
Rivers also said that on the morning of the game that Team U.S.A. saw the other team at the swimming pool of where they were staying with their wives and kids, and that was the beginning of the end of where they were going assemble professional players to represent the United States in the Olympics when it cam to basketball.
“It was the only game we were cheered too,” Rivers said of that contest against the Soviets. “We were booed throughout, you know. Because whenever you are on the U.S.A. team and you’re out of your country, especially back then, you were booed. But when we played the Soviets, the Columbians hated the Soviets more. So, we got cheered that whole game, and it was pretty cool.”
After playing three seasons collegiately at Marquette, Rivers entered his name into the 1983 NBA Draft and was chosen by the Atlanta Hawks No. 31 overall, where he played for eight seasons (1983-91).
In those eight seasons with head coach Mike Fratello Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins as the team headliner with Rivers playing a supportive role, the Hawks won 50 games or more four times, with their high watermark during time being 57 victories in the 1986-87 season.
The problem for the Hawks was that they just could not get passed the titans during that decade in the Philadelphia 76ers, led by Hall of Famers in Julius “Dr. J” Erving and the late Moses Malone; the legendary Boston Celtics led by Hall of Famers Larry Bird and Kevin McHale; and the Detroit Pistons led by Hall of Famer and current NBATV studio analyst Isiah Thomas.
Rivers refers to those setbacks he and those Hawks teams of the 1980s to what Phil Mickelson dealt with losing all those major golf tournaments to Tiger Woods.
He especially felt that way about the 1987-88 squad that lost in the epic Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals at the Celtics on May 22, 1988 where Wilkins and Bird had a classic back-and-forth scoring duel for the ages. Wilkins got better of Bird overall outscoring him 47 to 34, but Bird was on the winning end of the duel scoring 20 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter as the Celtics squeaked past the Hawks 118-116 to win the series 4-3.
“I thought that was our big shot,” Rivers, who had 16 points, 18 assists, five rebounds and two steals said about that loss. “We were up 3-2. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Atlanta that on fire about basketball. And we had a shot. I mean, we had game-winning shot there [Game 6] that we didn’t make, and then Game 7 was the Dominique/Bird battle, which was an amazing game.”
Rivers in the years that followed would play one season for the Clippers (1991-92), two with the New York Knicks (1992-94) and would finish his playing career with the San Antonio Spurs (1994-96).
He did have a serious shot at a title as a player, but the Knicks squad of 1992-93 lost in the Eastern Conference Finals in six games to the great Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, where the heartbreak came in Game 5 where in the closing seconds big man Charles Smith, who played with Rivers in his lone season with the Clippers was denied at the basket three times as the Knicks lost that contest 97-94 on June 2, 1993.
Rivers would get close to that chance at a title two years later when the Spurs reached the 1995 Western Conference Finals but lost to Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde “The Glide” Drexler and the eventual NBA champion Houston Rockets also in six games.
After the conclusion of his playing career, Rivers spent three years as a play-by-play television analyst for Turner Sports, working alongside then with play-by-play greats of Verne Lundquist, who now covers golf for CBS Sports and Kevin Harlan.
“I loved working for Turner, and then breaking me in with Verne Lundquist. I mean, come on,” Rivers said with a smile about that time in his basketball journey. “He set it up every day for me to just hit home runs.”
He would begin his coaching career with the Orlando Magic in 1999, where he coached for four-plus seasons, winning the 2000 Kia Coach of the Year as they went 41-41 that season just missing the playoffs.
That summer, the Magic positioned themselves to be big winners in free agency as they had the funds to assemble what would have been what is dubbed now the league’s “Big Three.”
The managed to sign now Hall of Famers Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill, and came close to signing future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan, but he re-signed with the Spurs due to Rivers strict policy of not allowing a player’s family members to travel on the team’s private jet, to which Rivers said was not told correctly.
Rivers said that he and Duncan did talk about that rule and he was told that the family of the players can fly on the team’s plane, but not all the time.
In conversing with Duncan then, Rivers said that he remembers being told that he was “pretty sure” that he was coming to the Magic but needed to go back to the Spurs because wanted to have what he thought was his last meeting out of the respect and love he has for head coach Gregg Popovich.
It was after that moment he called now head coach at the University of Kentucky John Calipari, who was the head coach of the then New Jersey, now Brooklyn Nets that said he just lost out on Duncan.
“We have one rule. You never let the kid leave campus without signing him,” Rivers said Coach Cal told him.
Rivers added that it would have been a hell of signing Duncan, who just won his first of what would turn out to be five titles with the Spurs, which meant that the future Hall of Famer made the right choice in staying with the team that drafted him No. 1 overall back in 1997.
On top of that, there was the fact that Hill was battling a foot injury his entire time with the Magic, along with the fact that the Magic only had enough money to sign two max players, which meant McGrady might have been the odd man out.
The Magic did make the playoffs over the next three seasons under Coach Rivers, but never made it passed the First-Round losing in four games to the Eastern Conference runner-up Milwaukee Bucks and Charlotte Hornets in 2001 and 2002 respectably.
Their best chance to advance came in the 2003 postseason when the Magic had the eventual East runner-up Detroit Pistons down 3-1 in that series but lost Games 5,6 and 7 to fall in seven games.
After a 1-10 start for the Magic in the 2003-04 season cost Rivers his job as head coach.
After spending a year working as a color commentator for the NBA on NBC, which he called the 2004 NBA Finals with now Sunday Football on NBC play-by-play man Al Michaels, Rivers got another shot as a head coach with the Boston Celtics in 2004.
The team made the playoffs in their first year under Rivers but lost in the opening round against the Indiana in seven games versus the Pacers.
That was followed by two straight springs of no postseason action for the then 16-time NBA champions, which led to strong opinions of his coaching style by many in “Beantown,” especially from devoted Boston sports fan and famed sports analyst, author, podcaster and sports writer Bill Simmons. Simmons even publicly called for the firing of Coach Rivers in his sports columns for ESPN.com.
Things changed greatly for the Celtics and Coach Rivers in the summer of 2007 when the team acquired Hall of Famer Ray Allen and future Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett to join fellow future Hall of Famer and perennial All-Star Paul Pierce.
While it took them an NBA record 26 postseason games to do it, the Celtics got back to The Finals and won their NBA record 17 Larry O’Brien trophy taking down their arch-rival in the Lakers in six games.
Rivers said that he learned that the makeup of a championship team having the players completely “buying in,” to that team’s culture. Being able to give yourself completely to the team.
When that goal is accomplished, Rivers said that you see a “group” of guys, which brings to the light that in order to accomplish something great like that in “isolation” and you need people to help you get to whatever you are going to get.
“What you find out when you’re winning, you had a group of guys that were talented and decided to come together and understand their roles. Accept their roles. Star in their roles. Have no jealousies towards each other,” he said about what is necessary to be a championship team.
What Rivers also said that he learned about what it took to become a champion is that it is hard.
The Celtics that postseason beat the previous record for most games played in a single postseason passing the 1994 Knicks squad, which Rivers was on that played 25 games that postseason in reaching The Finals, but lost in seven games to Olajuwon and the Rockets on the front end of their back-to-back titles.
The Celtics made it back to The Finals two seasons later where they faced the Lakers once again but this time lost that championship series in seven games as they hoisted their 16th Larry O’Brien trophy.
After a deliberation of whether to remain as the lead man on the C’s sidelines or leave to spend more time with his family in Orlando, FL, Rivers decided to honor the final year of his contract.
The Celtics lost in the 2011 East Semis to the eventual Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat led by current Lakers star LeBron James and future Hall of Famers in Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in five games.
That summer Rivers and the Celtics agreed to a five-year contract extension that summer worth about $35 million, according to ESPN.
The Celtics were within striking distance of making it back to The Finals in 2011-12 but lost to the Heat in the 2012 Conference Finals in seven games.
The Celtics stranglehold atop the East concluded the next spring when they lost in the opening round of the 2013 Playoffs to the Knicks in six games.
With the team no long a serious championship contender, the Celtics front office led by Danny Ainge decided it was time reshape things and dealt Coach Rivers to the Clippers for an unprotected 2015 First-Round draft pick in the summer of 2013.
Johnson had brought up the story about when Hall of Famer and legendary executive Jerry West told the Hall of Famer to be in the late Kobe Bryant once that he could not go to the Clippers and play for their owner Donald Sterling, who he called “that owner.”
Coach Rivers found out why Mr. West was so straight forward when he told that to Bryant in the middle of their 2014 First-Round tilt against he Warriors when TMZ released an audio recording that contained the then Clippers owner making racist comments.
Rivers said to Johnson that within weeks of being dealt to the Clippers that he knew that he made a “mistake.”
From the trades that Sterling okayed or nixed, like the trade to acquire now New Orleans Pelicans sharp-shooter JJ Redick, where it was called off because Sterling said that he does not like players that are Caucasian.
As Rivers was in the garage of the Orlando Airport, he gets a call from Redick’s college coach in Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University, whose upset. That was followed by a call from Redick’s agent, who screaming at Rivers.
Rivers then calls Sterling and had what he called a “conversation” that made a conversation the Clippers owner once had with Heat executive and Hall of Famer Pat Riley look what Rivers called “meek,” where by the very conclusion of that talk Rivers said he was quitting.
That back-and-forth over the phone consisted of Sterling saying that Rivers “you’re not gonna to quit,” and responded back saying “I quit,” with Sterling saying again, “you’re not gonna quit.”
“I will not let you ruin my reputation,” Rivers said.
Sterling responded to that by saying that Rivers should trust him because he has a “great” reputation around NBA, to which Rivers screamed, “I have the reputation. You don’t.”
Rivers then said that when he got home, he told his wife of their four children in Jeremiah, Callie, Austin, who plays now for the Rockets and Spencer that he may have gotten himself fired.
Three hours later however, Rivers get a call from then Clippers President Andy Roeser that the deal to get Redick was completed with Mr. Sterling’s blessing, but no explanation as to what changed his mind.
“And that moment, I knew we were in trouble. I knew I was in trouble,” Rivers said. “Now I honestly thought that team, that year we had a shot, and then this thing happened.”
Those awful comments that Sterling made to his then mistress V. Stiviano about African Americans led the Clippers before one of their playoff tilts in the opening round at the Golden State Warriors holding a silent protest where they pealed off their shooting shirts at center court of Oracle Arena, that obscured the team’s logo.
What Rivers said that remembers most in the lead up is that he was told of a video that was going to come out that was a “little bit embarrassing,” but nothing to pay attention to.
He did say that they had the video for three to four days but never looked at it. However, when the Clippers public relations person saw it one hour before it was shown on ESPN telling Rivers that he need to come up to his room immediately.
Rivers did and said that he was “dumbstruck” from what he saw come out of the mouth by Mr. Sterling.
“I knew it was a big deal like to the hour it took me an hour to put my shirt on,” Rivers said to Johnson after seeing that video. “Because I didn’t know I should wear a Clippers shirt to our team meeting or no Clippers shirt. As a coach, I’m still the coach of the team.”
Rivers wore his Clippers shirt when he met with his players and neither one of them had shirts on that represented the Clippers. He specifically remembers how now NBA studio analyst for ESPN Matt Barnes, Redick and now Brooklyn Nets center DeAndre Jordan had their respective arms folded and they did not want to hear the thoughts about the situation from Rivers.
It was hear that Rivers reminded his players that his name is “Glenn Rivers” from Chicago, IL and that he is “black.” That he was “pissed.” Called Sterling a “racist” and that he did not want the team to do anything for who he call “this man.”
Coach Rivers did say in addition that growing up in the “Windy City” that he had dreams of winning NBA titles that Mr. Sterling was never in that dream and that he would not “allow” him to be the roadblock of something that he wanted since he was a child.
“He shouldn’t have a part in this,” Rivers said as well. “But if we decide not to play, we decide not to play. But let it not be because this racist [expletive] guy.”
The Clippers as a team also made one big decision that there would be one voice, and one voice only that would lead them at this time away from the floor, which was Coach Rivers, with then lead guard in 10-time All-Star Chris Paul, now of the Oklahoma City Thunder only having to speak he is the president of the NBA’s Players Association.
Rivers that he said when he spoke about what Mr. Sterling did was crafted in collaboration with his players and was what he called a “microphone” for them.
This moment Rivers found himself in, being a head coach first for the Magic, then the Celtics and now the Clippers is from what he learned as player, specifically from the two years he played for the Knicks under then Coach Riley.
Rivers, who said that he not very often refers back to his playing career but told Johnson that during his 13 years in the NBA, the only thing meaningful to play for as a player was a championship. There was not a lot of other things available to expand your brand like social media.
The year before the Knicks reached the 1994 Finals, where Rivers was on the shelf because of a knee injury sustained right before Christmas in 1993 versus the Lakers, the Knicks were up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, that they lost as mentioned to the Bulls 4-2.
Rivers tried to return but was unable to because Coach Riley had to make decision of not putting Rivers back on the 12-man roster because the rule was heading into the postseason you had to have your roster of 12 players set and it could not be changed once that playoff season began.
Rivers was sitting on the bench in The Finals when the Knicks were playing the Rockets, healthy enough to play but unavailable because he was not on the active roster.
The one game that really was painful for Rivers to watch was Game 7 when John Starks shot 2 for 18 from the field, including going 0 for 11 from three-point range in the 90-84 loss at the Rockets on June 22, 1994, where Coach Riley Rivers said looked his way on the bench about 10 times.
“And I’m thinking, ‘God, this is what you play for’ and I’m in street close,” Rivers said about being on the sidelines in that big game. “That was a very hard period for me.”
The other moment that Rivers remembers from that Finals series was Game 5 where football legend O.J. Simpson was on the run from police in his Ford Bronco truck, where he remembers then sideline reporter for NBA on NBC’s coverage Ahmad Rashad leaving because of the friendship he had with Smith that made him so emotional that he could not finish the broadcast.
Rivers also remembers that at intermission of that game being asked by Hall of Famer and now head coach at his alma mater Georgetown Patrick Ewing has Simpson “killed himself yet?”
It was the assumption to Rivers and the rest of the Knicks players that Simpson was going to commit suicide, and it was just a matter of time before it happened.
Heading into next season, Rivers and Coach Riley had what was referred to by the Clippers head coach a “contentious” meeting about him wanting out after not being activated for the Knicks playoff run that past season.
It was not until he became a head coach that Rivers said he understood that Riley made the decision he made for Rivers own wellbeing.
Rivers said he came into the 1994-95 season no longer wanting to play, which Riley did not want. So, Rivers went to then Knicks President Dave Checketts, which did not sit well with Riley.
The then coach of the Knicks called Rivers up to his office, which is always dark with the lights dim with a blue light only on him and you sitting in a dark shadow in reference to “The God Father” movies.
Rivers said that he and Riley exchanged words for a good “20 minutes” to the point that then assistant coaches in the late Dick Harter and current television color analyst for ESPN/ABC Jeff Van Gundy were literally standing outside Riley’s office because they thought the exchange would turn from words to physical which it never did.
The Knicks during the 1994-95 season traded Rivers along with Smith to the Spurs and for a two-year period did not speak, even though Rivers said that he loved him and wanted to become a coach. But Rivers said it “took” him a long time to mend fences after that exchange.
Riley did say that exchange illustrated to him that Rivers would make a great coach someday because of his stubbornness.
Rivers says that he and Riley were so mad at each other that he said to Rivers he was going to be a coach someday, which Rivers said he was “crazy” to think that and said that he will “never” be a coach and never be like Riley.
“It was that nuts, and obviously he was right again,” Rivers said. “He was so tickled when I decided to be a coach. He thought that was absolutely wonderful for him. I got messages and calls, and we started talking.”
Rivers said after retiring as a player from the Spurs, now head coach Gregg Popovich, was working in the Spurs front office at that time offered him a spot as an assistant coach on the Spurs sidelines. He just felt though that it was not the right thing to do then and that he needed the “separation.”
It was then General Manage of the Cleveland Cavaliers in Hall of Famer Wayne Embry that told Rivers to become a television color analyst, which gave him the separation that Rivers wanted and allow him to see the systems of the other NBA teams.
Rivers said that he attended all the practices, shootarounds when he was working for Turner Sports, ABC and the Spurs, where took notes for the telecast and where he had notes on specific plays he came drew up with from being at those practices and shootarounds.
“What I learned the most was more about philosophy and how coaches treated players more than I did the X and O part,” Rivers said he took from his time as a broadcaster.
From his playing days growing up in Chicago, to his collegiate days at Marquette to his 13-year NBA career as a player with the Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs, Glenn “Doc” Rivers learned a lot what it took to be a solid NBA player and the highs and lows you experience when you are in it.
It is those experiences that he used as a player and then a broadcaster working with Turner Sports and ESPN/ABC that helped him become a very good head coach, and a champion with the Celtics, with help from future Hall of Famers in Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, and now Hall of Famer Ray Allen.
The hope is that Rivers can get another crack at another Larry O’Brien trophy with the Clippers, with All-Stars in two-time NBA champion with the Spurs and last season with the Toronto Raptors Kawhi Leonard and fellow perennial All-Star Paul George leading the way, if the 2019-20 NBA campaign is allowed to resume once the COVID-19 Pandemic will allow that. Even with that, Rivers understands from that 2008 Celtics title squad it will not be an easy task.
“People have no ideal how hard it is to win a title,” Rivers said. “You do not win by accident. There’s no accidental champions. There are none.”
Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 5/20/2020 8:30 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “#NBA Together With Ernie Johnson: Doc Rivers;” Pages 126, 315, 451, and 510 of the “Sporting News: 2006-07 Official NBA Guide;” https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/198805220BOS.html; https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/NYK/1994.html; https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199406220HOU.html; Clippers Strength Coach and Trainers search on www.google.com; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Roeser; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Calipari; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Clippers#Donald_Sterling_Contrversy; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Rivers.
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