Glen “Big Baby” Davis won a championship with the Boston Celtics under Doc Rivers in 2008. Davis played for Rivers in Boston from 2007 to 2011, and then again for the Los Angeles Clippers during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons. So, Davis knows Rivers pretty well. And he has come to the conclusion that Rivers is overrated, he told Chris Broussard (Transcribed by MassLive’s Jay King):
“Because what Doc had in ’08 was special,” Davis said on the podcast. “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 KG. 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.
“And then you give credit to Danny Ainge. That’s the one you give credit to because 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 wouldn’t even give me like, hey. I’d play great games and he’d be: ‘Go do it again.’ You know? You want to hear that, ‘Hey, great job kid. Good job, man. Keep it up.’ But not, ‘Go do it again.’ So I’m off that Doc tip man.”
Davis isn’t a fan of what Doc Rivers was doing with the Clippers while Davis was there:
“I don’t like what he’s doing right now,” Davis said. “I don’t like his organization, what he’s doing, his teams. We had something in ’08 and that was it. You know what I mean? That’s what that is. So far, like, I didn’t like how the way 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. My ankle’s broke. And you just told 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. My ankle was broke.”
…
“They just did an X-ray (for the ankle). 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.”
When asked if he feels that Rivers is overrated as a coach, Davis replied: “I think so, yeah.”
