Glen Davis calls Doc Rivers overrated and ‘lucky’ to win title with Celtics
The two were together for six seasons in Boston and Los Angeles.
Glen “Big Baby” Davis played the majority of his NBA career for Doc Rivers, but the 31-year-old power forward does not believe his former head coach deserves the constant praise he receives in league circles.
Davis unloaded on Rivers in a recent edition of Chris Broussard’s podcast “In The Zone,” podcast, calling Rivers a great guy, but “overrated” as a coach and “lucky as hell” to win the 2008 championship with the Celtics.
“What Doc had in ’08 was special and he was lucky as hell,” Davis explained. “The year before that they was wearing trash bags, but then the next year they win it, now he is 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 who made sure whatever Doc needed to be done, got done.
“And see now it’s easy for Doc to do his job. And then you give credit Danny Ainge. That’s the one you give credit to. Because I know multiple times [Ainge] had to talk to Doc, just to say ‘Hey, Doc, leave ’em 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 last played in the NBA during the 2014-15 season with the Los Angeles Clippers, under Rivers. An ankle injury suffered during the 2015 postseason has slowed his attempts to return to the NBA. He showed some anger towards Rivers and the Clippers for how they handled his injury and free agency that summer.
“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 [in free agency]. My agent has to beg you to call me.”
