Rivers gets call from Hollywood

There’s an upcoming movie that will detail the days of Donald Sterling as the Clippers owner, including the abrupt ending to his tenure, when he was caught on audio tape making racist and sexist statements and was forced to sell the team in 2014.

Doc Rivers, as well as Celtics center Blake Griffin, are featured in the movie. Rivers is being played by renowned actor Laurence Fishburne (“What’s Love Got To Do With It,” “Hoodlum,” “Apocalypse Now”). Rivers details how the two went to dinner and Fishburne carefully studied his every move.

“I thought I looked better than that,” Rivers joked. “I didn’t ever think anyone would ever play me in anything, if you want me to be honest. I got to meet him, which was really cool for me and I got to see him. I thought we were meeting just to have dinner and then realizing that he was studying me.

“He was actually asking me to get up from the table and walk up and down the hallway because he was trying to get my hellish gait of how I walk.”

Rivers said when the dinner concluded, Fishburne told him there was no way he would try to mimic the raspy voice. Rivers’s voice is near legendary because of its hoarseness.

“He’s called me since on what I wear to games, what kind of car I was driving to games,” Rivers said. “It’s amazing the detail. I guess that’s why he’s Laurence Fishburne. He’s a pro. Everybody who does their job does it, but you forget in their profession they have to do their jobs, too, sometimes. It’s a pretty cool vantage point for me. Can’t wait to see it.”

Rivers coached again on the other side of the 76ers-Celtics rivalry after nine years of leading Boston. Rivers said he had no idea about the importance of the rivalry until a moment with Celtics legend Tom Heinsohn.

“It’s intense on both sides, it really is,” Rivers said. “Not any different in some ways, but very intense. It might have been my first year coaching in Boston and we were average and we lost to Philly one game and we were flying back and Tommy Heinsohn grabbed me and says, ‘Don’t ever lose to Philly again.’ And he never said anything like that. For me, I was new to it and it wasn’t a rivalry. And so I kind of got the message that these two cities like beating each other.

“I think it becomes a rivalry naturally, and I don’t know if [the players] feel the history of it, but they definitely feel the other part of it, for sure.”

The Celtics and 76ers are slated to meet once again in the playoffs, if each advances past the first round with Boston owning home-court advantage. It would be the 23rd playoff matchup between the franchises.