Doc Rivers may have been lining up his plans with the Clippers on Monday night, but his mind and eyes were still on Boston.
Rivers talked Tuesday with Jackie MacMullan of ESPN.com about the tight relationships between the pro sports coaches in Boston. That included a very tense Stanley Cup for Rivers, who said he was watching Game 6 on Monday while working out details with Los Angeles.
“I was on the phone with the Clippers [Monday] night talking through my deal,” Rivers said, “and one of them asked me, ‘So, do you feel like everything is in line?’ I started shouting, ‘No, no!’ They said to me, ‘Doc, what is it? What’s wrong?’
“It wasn’t them. It was that second goal [by the Blackhawks’ Dave Bolland]. I couldn’t believe what I was watching. I felt so bad for Claude [Julien].”
Rivers said he heard from former Red Sox manager Terry Francona after agreeing to coach the Clippers, and he told Francona he had been getting grief for wearing an Indians cap when Francona balked at rooting for the Clippers.
But Rivers’ relationship with Julien was especially close, as Rivers said he would go to Julien’s office at TD Garden often.
“We had a lot of great conversations,” Rivers said. “I always told him, ‘Claude, it’s too bad about this feud between the Bruins and the Celtics, because you and I have a great time.’ The players all got along, too. I never understood where that whole conflict came from.”
Rivers is now looking ahead to conflict of a different kind as he changes his address to a Los Angeles zip code.
