Doc Rivers Wins Rudy Tomjanovich Award, Jokes It Is 'Right Up There' With Championship' (Video)

Doc Rivers Wins Rudy Tomjanovich Award, Jokes It Is ‘Right Up There’ With Championship’ (Video)

by Ben Watanabe on Mon, May 14, 2012 at 9:47PM

BOSTON — Doc Rivers typically is able to expound on almost any basketball-related topic in his pregame media sessions. So it was a little ironic that, when asked to comment on winning an award for being cooperative with the media, the Celtics coach had little to say.

The Professional Basketball Writers Association on Monday named Rivers the recipient of the Rudy Tomjanovich Award, which is "given to the coach who best combines excellence to his craft with cooperation with the media and fans."

Rivers shrugged and said "it's nice" when asked about the award, but still seemed appreciative. He then laughed at a joking question about whether this award replaced the 2008 NBA Championship on his resume.

"It's right up there," Rivers said, tongue-in-cheek.

Nuggets coach George Karl, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy and Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle were also nominated.

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Video by NESN.com/Jen Slothower