Doc Rivers gave a faceless franchise an identity, saving it from perpetual embarrassment and crisis, and guiding the Los Angeles Clippers with a steady hand off the floor to the path of respectability.
For the Clippers to go from respectable to champions, they need far more than any coach who’ll follow behind Rivers can deliver: leadership on the floor.
Rivers was masterful at getting the 2008 Boston Celtics to jell in a short period of time, wrangling so many disparate personalities to fit en route to a title and years of contention. It also meant he was expected to repeat the task in subsequent years, amassing talent without regard to natural chemistry because Rivers could magically cure all the ills.