Doc Rivers was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday in Springfield, a moment that formally recognizes a coaching career defined by one championship, 21 playoff appearances and a long run of close calls.
Rivers coached the Celtics, Clippers, 76ers and Bucks over 27 years, and his résumé includes four losing seasons. That mix of longevity, success and heartbreak was a major theme as he looked back on his career, which is now part of the Hall of Fame. As he told the Boston Globe in the lead-up to the honor, he said, "You go through a lot of crap. Like that’s part of your life."
A career built on winning and near-misses
The Hall of Fame induction arrives with both the peak and the pain of Rivers’s career still clearly attached. He won one title, but he also went through a string of postseason losses that helped define how people remember him. The Celtics lost the Finals in 7 games to the Lakers in 2010. The Clippers later lost a 3-1 playoff series lead to the Rockets in 2015, and again lost a 3-1 lead to the Nuggets in the NBA Bubble in 2020.
Rivers did not shy away from that reality. "Winning a title, I didn’t accomplish that and we had some just brutal games where we almost got over the hump and didn’t get over the hump," he said. "That’s just part of your legacy that you live with, but damn, I wouldn’t trade it for the world."
He also explained the mentality that drove him through all of it. "Like I would go through that all again to have the chance to do it," Rivers said. "Like only one team wins, and like Bill Belichick [told] me, either you land the plane or it’s a crash landing."
What Rivers says he carried with him
Rivers said he never made peace easily with losing, even if he understands why the job comes with it. "I mean that’s dramatic, but that’s how I try to operate. I’ve never handled [losing] well. I wish I could have done that better. Like if I have one regret, you know. I don’t have a lot of regrets because my dad was the no victim thing," he said.
That honesty fits the rest of his reflection. "I think there’s one you can do a lot of winning, but the only thing I was in this for was to be the winner, and I was only that once," Rivers said. "That’s a harsh [expletive] way of looking at, it is."
Still, he said the chase itself was the point. "That’s part of why you coach, and that’s part of why I was successful, is because of that drive. I wanted to beat people. Yeah, that was it. Why did you do it? Because I’m still loving it, and I love the chase of trying to be the winner."
For Rivers, Saturday in Springfield was less about a neat ending than a formal recognition of the whole story: the title, the rebuilding work, the disappointments and the persistence that kept him coaching for nearly three decades.
