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It’s been almost a decade since Doc Rivers was the head coach of the Boston Celtics. Since then, Rivers has had stops with the Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers as their head coach, where he has not experienced the same success with them as he did with the Celtics. That has not stopped Rivers from criticizing the Celtics’ upper management for the choices they made while he was around.
In an interview with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Rivers stated that he believes the Celtics upper management made a mistake by not keeping some of the players that helped them win the title in 2008. He compared that to the Golden State Warriors, who are still winning championships ever since their window opened in 2015.
“We do make mistakes, like if I went back to Boston, the biggest mistakes… after 2008, we start chipping pieces away like Tony Allen and James Posey, where I thought what Golden State did (was) smart. They kept their core as long as they could keep it, and then they started making moves when the guys got older.”
Rivers also made it clear that what the Warriors have done is “an outlier” and that what they’ve done is “not normal in the NBA anymore.”
Posey Wanted to Stay in Boston
On August 21, 2021, Posey wrote an article for Basketball News detailing what went down between him and the Celtics’ front office from when he signed with the team in 2007 and when he left the following summer after winning the championship.
“The Celtics’ front office only offered me a one-year contract. At this point, I’d just turned 30 years old, and even though I felt good enough to play a few more years, once you hit 30, you start to think about your post-playing career…
“Despite all that, I was confident in myself and decided to take the one-year deal to play in Boston. I assumed that if I proved that I could be a productive member of the team, the organization would reward me with a multi-year deal closer to my market value.
“I ended up being wrong… I was offered another one-year deal.”
Posey then explained that while he wanted to stay with the Celtic, both the long-term security and his experience helping good teams win championships made the New Orleans Hornets a good choice for Posey to sign in 2008.
“So yeah, I wanted to go back to Boston, but when New Orleans stepped up and offered me a four-year deal, my agent felt it was a no-brainer. I’d had good relationships with both Chris Paul and David West, and they were coming off a 56-win season, with CP finishing second in MVP voting to Kobe. I’d won championships in Miami and Boston, so I thought I could help get New Orleans over the hump.”
Tony Allen Reflected on Leaving Boston
In an interview with Jay King on December 28, 2016, back when King worked for MassLive, Allen got candid on what it was like when he left the Celtics for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2010.
“Yeah, it irked me. I thought I would be here (in Boston), but at the same time, you understand the business of it,” Allen told King. “Ain’t no ill feelings (from) it. It’s the nature of the business. And I appreciate those guys giving me my first job. So I moved on. My career’s still at an all-time high. I am the Grindfather, and I say that in the most humbling way. It didn’t affect me. It only made me stronger.”
Much like Posey, Allen acknowledged then that the NBA is a business.
“I just look at it like it’s a business, and I moved on. And I blossomed. You’ve been watching me. You see what’s up.”
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