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Former Celtics coach Doc Rivers

BOSTON – As Doc Rivers coached the Bucks against the Celtics on Monday night, he could proudly look up at the TD Garden rafters on the Bucks bench. The 2008 NBA Championship banner? He had helped hang the thing.

But in addition to satisfaction, looking at the sky can also radiate a certain amount of melancholy for Rivers. Since he left the Celtics’ sidelines in the summer of 2013, there has been a resurgence that culminated in the club’s 18th title last spring.

Had Rivers stayed, he likely would have written his own chapter in franchise history. He could be well on his way to a spot on one of the retired number flags – perhaps with his Boston win total after retirement, or perhaps with the DOC listed in descending diagonal order, like the LOSCY for former Celtic Jim Loscutoff .

“Yeah, what could have been…” Rivers told Heavy Sports, his voice trailing off. “My first year with the Clippers, I thought about it: ‘Uh, maybe I made a mistake.’ But after that I didn’t think about it at all.

“Listen, my first year with the Clippers I said, ‘Uh-oh, I may have made a mistake.’ But you know, one thing I’ve never done is never look back. I just don’t do it. I’ve never done that before.”

Celtics made a push in 2013

Well, maybe a little. The Celtics literally begged Doc to stay in 2013. They began the process of a major rebuild by trading Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to Brooklyn in a swindle that later produced the draft picks that produced Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in consecutive years.

Danny Ainge, then the Celtics’ head of basketball operations, wanted Rivers to stay because he believed his reputation was key to attracting free agents.

The Celts were doing pretty well in that regard anyway, with new coach Brad Stevens now running the show from the front office. But what would it have meant for Rivers in the long run to endure the rebuild? Unfortunately, it was impossible for him to turn down money and roster control as the team seemed poised to score a big win in Los Freaking Angeles.

That this happened three years after he had considered moving on but then decided to stay, declaring: “I’m a Celtic”, made the split somewhat awkward. And as Rivers stood in the Garden’s backstage hallway after the Bucks’ loss to the C’s late Monday night, he realized the exit wasn’t easy at all.

There was the lure of tradition.

“The only thing that almost made me stay was that I kept thinking, Jesus Christ, if I stay, we’ll get it right back,” Rivers told Heavy. “We knew we were going to rebuild, we were going to do it right. My whole thing is nine years in one place, you feel like you’ve been listened to. But the players change…

“So I always look back on it and say, ‘Ah, maybe I was overthinking that.’ But it is what it is. You can’t get it back.”

Clippers never lived up to the billing

And with the star triumvirate of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, Doc and the Clippers never managed to advance past the second round of the playoffs.

“The lesson you learn,” Rivers said, “is that if you have bad organization, you can’t prevail, you know? I left the best organization in basketball at the time to go to the worst organization in basketball, and you can’t escape that. This is unbeatable. And I recognized it early on. I said to my coaches, “Oh, boy, this is…”

“Now we got lucky with the Sterling thing,” he said of disgraced former owner Donald Sterling, who was caught on tape making racist comments and was banned (his wife stepped in and sold the team to Steve). Ballmer before Donald could make it a legal mess). ).

“And then I’m proud that I left the Clippers as one of the best organizations. I was instrumental in it. I built this in many ways, so I’m very proud of it. That’s something I’ll always be proud of because that wasn’t a great organization, and now they have a new arena, they have all that, and I was a big part of that. So you never look back; you just look at the things you’ve done.”

And Rivers has done a lot. In many places. He moved from the Clippers to Philadelphia, and after a brief return to television last season, he took over the Bucks when Adrian Griffin was fired.

Boston remains big for Doc Rivers

Instead of deepening his ties to Boston, a place he still holds dear (the Bucks play in Memphis on Thursday, but he kept them here in the meantime), Rivers collected stamps on his NBA passport. Therefore, there will be a number of transitional stages in the writing of his legacy. After playing for four teams, he now coaches five.

“Everywhere I went, I won,” he said as he discussed his coaching career in perspective. “S***, I got fired in Philly and we were .653 (regular season winning percentage, 154-82) in the three years I was there, you know what I mean? So I’m happy with my legacy. I’m eighth in wins (in my NBA career) and fourth in playoff wins, so I have a great legacy. But I want more. That’s why I still do it.”

This newest location, Milwaukee, is a good fit. Rivers went to Marquette and is from Chicago, which means friends and family can connect in person.

“No, nobody likes to move, but you know, it doesn’t bother me,” he said. “I always look at there being 30 jobs, and I’ve always had one of the good ones.”

Of the Bucks’ stop, Rivers noted the geography and said, “That was phenomenal. Now we have to do it right.”

With those words, he grabbed his coat and headed out for a late dinner in the city he once thought would be his forever basketball home.