Glen “Big Baby” Davis is not a Doc Rivers fan, at least not anymore. In an appearance on the “In the Zone” podcast with Chris Broussard, Davis ripped Rivers, calling him overrated and accusing him of being cold to Davis when the forward broke his ankle with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2015.
From MassLive’s Jay King:
“Because what Doc had in ‘08 was special,” Davis said on the podcast. “And he was lucky as hell. Lucky as hell. The year before that they were wearing trash bags (in the crowd). ... But then the next year they win it, now he’s 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 that made sure whatever Doc needed to be done got done. And so now it’s easy for Doc to do his job.
“And then you give credit to Danny Ainge. That’s the one you give credit to because I know multiple times he had to talk to Doc just to say, ‘Hey Doc, leave them 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 proceeded to call Rivers “a great guy” but said he has “cooled off” on his former coach. Davis did not like the way his time with the Los Angeles Clippers ended.
“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. My agent has to beg you to call me. My ankle’s broke. And you just told me -- they pulled me to the side when I played against Houston and told me, ‘You’re not playing the way you need to play. You’re not doing this.’ My ankle was broke. My ankle was broke. And they’re shooting me up, shooting me up, shooting me up every day to play. My ankle was broke.”
Though he said the Clippers did not know the extent of the damage, Davis said, “They just did an X-ray (for the ankle). They didn’t do an MRI. And it was just like, ‘Oh, can you run? Can you play?’ The next day they had me working out after I broke my ankle. They had me trying to play Game 7. It was crazy and I’m just not feeling that. When you win a championship with somebody, you don’t treat nobody like that. No matter if it’s a business or not, because it’s bigger than basketball between us, Doc. I have never left you at the altar. I’ve never left you at the altar. You know what I mean? I’ve never left. You go get Spencer Hawes, he does nothing. You’ve got to trade him. You’ve still got me on the bench knowing that I can play, but you still go play Spencer Hawes knowing that you’re just trying to cover your own butt because Spencer’s not panning out the way you wanted him to pan out. And I just don’t like that. I’m not feeling that.”
A few thoughts:
- It was sort of shocking to see Davis go on such a rant about Rivers, considering the circumstances of his last stint in the league. Back in February 2014, the Orlando Magic and Davis agreed to a buyout, and a few days later he signed with the Clippers, reuniting with the man who coached him with the Boston Celtics. If Davis thought Rivers didn’t make his teams better, then why do that -- or re-sign with the Clippers for the minimum that summer?
- Rivers and Davis have clashed a bit in the past. Once, Rivers sent Davis to the locker room during a game, telling reporters afterward that he wasn’t emotionally ready to play. When Davis showed up for 2014-15 claiming to have lost weight, Rivers joked, “It’s like throwing a deck chair off the Queen Mary.” Back in 2011, Davis said that his sports psychologist “helps me to deal with Doc.”
- If what Davis is alleging is true, then it’s serious. No team should force a player to work out if he has a broken ankle. That falls on the organization, though, not just Rivers.
- Rivers would probably laugh at being called “lucky.” He knows he was lucky that Boston acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and he has spoken many times of the enormous role that luck plays in sports. He could also argue that he was unlucky that Davis wasn’t in better shape with the Clippers, which was part of the reason their bench units were so awful in 2014-15.