Clippers not keeping Rivers
Team blew 3-1 lead in series vs. Denver in West semifinals
Doc Rivers would easily be considered the best coach in Los Angeles Clippers history. Most wins. Most playoff appearances. Top winning percentage. And now he’s out. Rivers announced in a statement posted to Twitter on Monday that he is not returning as coach. The move comes about two weeks after the Clippers wasted a 3-1 series lead and lost to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals.
“Doc has been a terrific coach for the Clippers, an incredible ambassador, and a pillar of strength during tumultuous times,” Clippers chairman Steve Ballmer said in a statement. “He won a heck of a lot of games and laid a foundation for this franchise.”
The Clippers said Rivers and Ballmer came to the decision jointly.
Rivers spent seven seasons with the Clippers, making the playoffs in six of them — major success for a once-woebegone franchise. This season’s team, with the summer
2019 additions of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, was expected to compete for a championship.
But losing three closeout opportunities to the Nuggets cost the Clippers a chance to play the Los Angeles Lakers in the West finals, and likely played a role in Rivers not remaining as coach.
“When I took this job, my goals were to make this a winning basketball program, a free agent destination, and bring a championship to this organization,” Rivers wrote in the statement. “While I was able to accomplish most of my goals, I won’t be able to see them all through.”
Rivers went 356-208 over seven seasons with
the Clippers, taking them to the West second round three times. But the franchise has never made the conference finals, and going 0-3 with a chance to get there this year was a devastating blow.
Celtics: Jayson Tatum emerged as a bona fide star, Jaylen Brown showed he can be a consistent presence in the lineup and Kemba Walker helped the Celtics put the failed Kyrie Irving experiment behind them.
But following their Eastern Conference finals loss to Miami, it’s clear there is still work to do in Boston after the Celtics squandered their best opportunity yet under coach Brad Stevens to make it to the NBA Finals.
Stevens said he heads into the offseason lamenting only the outcome and not the effort.