Big Baby: Overrated Doc Rivers was 'lucky as hell' to win '08 title
The coach-player relationship between Doc Rivers and Glen "Big Baby" Davis seemingly did not end on the most pleasant of notes.
Davis, who played for Rivers with both the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers, said his old coach is overrated, and doesn't really deserve much credit for the championship his Celtics won in 2008.
"What Doc had in '08 was special," Davis said this week on Chris Broussard's "In the Zone" podcast, as transcribed by MassLive's Jay King. "And he was lucky as hell. Lucky as hell. The year before that they were wearing trash bags (in the crowd). ... But then the next year they win it, now he's one of the best coaches ever? I'm just not feeling that, you know what I mean? You give credit to (Kevin Garnett). You give credit to Paul Pierce. You give credit to Ray Allen. Those are the guys that made sure whatever Doc needed to be done got done. And so now it's easy for Doc to do his job."
Davis, who was a rookie on that 2007-08 title team, called Rivers a good person but a poor motivator - at least for him personally - and said Celtics president Danny Ainge occasionally had to get Rivers to lay off.
"I know multiple times he had to talk to Doc just to say, 'Hey Doc, leave them alone. Hey Doc, ease up. Like, there's points where you ease up.' I would play good games and Doc ... he'd be: 'Go do it again.' You know? You want to hear, 'Hey, great job kid. Good job, man. Keep it up.' But not, 'Go do it again.' So I'm off that Doc tip, man. He's a great guy but as far as just that basketball stuff, I just try to leave (it)."
Davis' stint with the Clippers, his last as an NBAer, seems to have left a bitter taste in his mouth, particularly in regards to how Rivers treated him while he was playing through an ankle injury. The Clippers' 2014-15 season ended with a second-round loss to the Houston Rockets, in which they blew a 3-1 series lead. Davis hasn't played an NBA game since.
"I don't like his organization, what he's doing, his teams," Davis said of Rivers and the Clippers. "We had something in '08 and that was it. You know what I mean? ... I didn't like how he handled me on my exit. Yeah, hold yourself accountable, but at the same time I had a broken ankle. I won a championship with you and you don't even really call me. I've got to beg you to call me. My agent has to beg you to call me. ...
"They pulled me to the side when I played against Houston and told me, 'You're not playing the way you need to play. You're not doing this.' My ankle was broke. My ankle was broke. And they're shooting me up, shooting me up, shooting me up every day to play. ...
"They just did an X-ray. They didn't do an MRI. And it was just like, 'Oh, can you run? Can you play?' The next day they had me working out after I broke my ankle. They had me trying to play Game 7. It was crazy and I'm just not feeling that. When you win a championship with somebody, you don't treat nobody like that. No matter if it's a business or not, because it's bigger than basketball between us, Doc."
Rivers took a shot at Davis earlier in February, reminding reporters after Pierce grew watery-eyed in his final game in Boston that it wasn't the first time he'd seen someone cry during a game.
"I saw Big Baby cry one time," Rivers said, referring to a famous incident in which an animated Garnett brought Davis to tears on the bench.