Former NBA player and current analyst Gilbert Arenas is known to speak his mind about a variety of basketball topics, and he’s never been afraid to criticize. However, Arenas no longer says anything negative about former Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers (now with the Milwaukee Bucks), and Arenas explained why recently.
Arenas said that Rivers reached out to him after Arenas’s son, Alijah, was involved in a car accident. Arenas said this moved him because Rivers wasn’t concerned with all of the criticism that Arenas had been throwing at him in the media. He said that he realized how great of a person Rivers is, because he reached out to ask about his son despite all of that.
Rivers has a sterling reputation across the NBA, and there’s a reason why. He’s a high-character individual and always has been, and he’s been known to be a “player’s coach” throughout his career on the sidelines, often showing a special talent for managing egos in the locker room and getting everyone to buy in.
Rivers has had success at the helm of multiple NBA teams (and he was a very good player, too), but he reached his coaching peak with the Celtics.
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Rivers arrived in Boston in 2004, taking the helm of a Celtics squad eager for revival. Early years proved challenging: a first-round playoff exit in 2005 gave way to back-to-back postseason misses in 2006 and 2007, with records of 33-49 and 24-58 fueling calls for change. Yet Rivers’s tenure transformed dramatically in 2007-08. Bolstered by the arrivals of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen alongside Paul Pierce, Boston surged to a league-best 66-16 mark. Rivers guided the team through the playoffs, clinching the NBA championship in six games over the Lakers.
The following seasons sustained excellence. A 2010 Finals rematch against Los Angeles fell short in seven games, but Rivers’s squads captured six Atlantic Division titles across nine years, amassing a 416-305 regular-season record and seven playoff berths. His emphasis on team-first “Ubuntu” philosophy fostered unbreakable bonds among stars.
