Glenn Anton Rivers is a lot of things to a lot of people. He’s a father of four. He’s the son of a former Chicago police officer. But to most people, he’s Doc Rivers, highly successful 22-year NBA coach who just ascended to 10th on the league’s all-time coaching regular-season wins list.
Rivers hit that latest accomplishment the day after Christmas when his 76ers beat the Knicks 109-89.
The victory, Rivers’ 945th, pushed him past Hall-of-Famer Bill Fitch to become the second Black coach in the top 10. The other is No. 2 Lenny Wilkens (1,332 wins). Nate McMillan (661 wins) is the only other Black coach in the top 25.
Rivers has never been one to shy away from speaking out against racial injustice, which marked his career from player to coach. Reaching another NBA milestone during a particularly difficult year, when a pandemic shut down much of the world for months and tensions soared around race and police brutality, placed Rivers in an even brighter spotlight.
He’s spoken in the past about the prejudices he and his wife, Kristen, who is white, faced when they started dating at Marquette University in the 1980s. As head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, Rivers also managed the fallout of former owner Donald Sterling’s racial rant revealed when a recording surfaced in 2014.
And Rivers offered an emotional response that garnered widespread support and sparked discussion outside of basketball as well when asked during an Aug. 26 postgame interview about the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man paralyzed after he was shot seven times in the back by police officers in Kenosha, Wis., about 40 miles south of Marquette.
“It’s amazing why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back. It’s really so sad. Like, I should just be a coach. I’m so often reminded of my color. It’s just really sad. We got to do better. But we got to demand better,” Rivers said during one part of his three-minute reply to a reporter’s question.
“I think in addition to being an outstanding coach with a great record, Doc has always been known as a players’ coach,” said Richard Lapchick, a longtime civil rights activist and the founder of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at UCF. “The people on his teams wanted to play with him and for him. He’s always been respected because he’s willing to say uncomfortable truths. That was especially true with his poignant and powerful statement during the racial reckoning in 2020.”
Rivers’ current players already recognize those qualities in their new coach. After that milestone Knicks win, Philadelphia star Ben Simmons said, “He believes in us. He believes in everybody’s ability.”
And standout Joel Embiid said, “When he speaks, everybody listens.”
That’s why, to some, Rivers is an inspiration — within sports, of course, and beyond.
But Rivers has trouble seeing himself that way.
“I don’t look at what I’m doing, honestly. I’d love to say — I know it means something and I know it means a lot to people, uh, but I just I don’t know,” said Rivers, 59, before the 76ers beat the Magic 116-92 on New Year’s Eve. “I’ve never been able to put myself in that place where I’m thinking about what I’m doing. Um, I think I have fooled myself that I’m really young and I have a whole career to go, and maybe that’s why I don’t, but I do feel like I’ve got a lot to do and so I don’t think about it that often.”
Rivers noted he got his coaching start in Orlando, where he took over for Chuck Daly in 1999, won NBA Coach of the Year in 2000 and continued to find success until his firing in 2003. He earned additional opportunities after that, something denied to many fired Black coaches through the years, Rivers said during an interview with The Undefeated.
“If not for Chuck Daly, I don’t know that I am coaching. And John Gabriel,” Rivers told the Orlando Sentinel. “Because I thought both of those guys really championed me without any experience. They both wanted me to coach.”
He then went on to win the 2008 championship with the Boston Celtics, where he coached from 2004-2013 before heading to the Clippers, where he also took over as president of basketball operations following the Sterling controversy. Rivers stepped down as the Clippers’ coach Sept. 28 after what he called a disappointing end to their season. The 76ers, who are off to a 5-1 start this season, announced him as their new coach five days later.
“The speed with which Doc got hired by Philadelphia after being let go by Los Angeles was unprecedented for a Black coach,” Lapchick said. “Too often Black coaches historically have not gotten second chances as easily as white coaches. This was a good sign for hiring practices. The NBA has always been way ahead of other leagues in terms of opportunities for people of color and women in leadership positions.
“The love and appreciation that the public showed Doc when he spoke out during the racial reckoning was some thing I have rarely seen.”
