Re-Signing Paul Pierce, Ray Allen Biggest Reason for Doc Rivers’ Return

The Celtics were dangerously close to losing their head coach, but the re-signing of a couple of future Hall of Famers made Doc Rivers‘ decision to return a little bit easier.

Rivers told ESPN.com that he was leaning heavily toward taking some time off from coaching, but the Celtics’ re-signings of veterans Paul Pierce and Ray Allen were the biggest reasons he returned to the C’s for his seventh season at the helm.

“I wasn’t coming back unless they were coming back,” Rivers said. “We all talked. I can tell you that. I made sure. I knew they had to do their business and Ray scared me a little bit with the money out there.”

The 48-year-old coach was notably on the fence about a return to coaching. He’s admitted publicly that he’d like to spend more time with his children, especially as their athletic careers develop, and admittedly had a stressful season, calling the 2009-10 season “a tough year, a literally tough year.”

He even hinted to Celtics general manager Danny Ainge that he was “pretty much done.”

But the Celtics’ offseason moves, plus a chance at avenging an NBA Finals loss to the Lakers, apparently proved to be too much to ignore.

Rivers’ agreeing to come back to the Celtics’ bench solidifies the notion that the Celtics as an organization believe they still have at least one more championship run in them.

The re-signings of Pierce and Allen ensure that the Celtics’ core will be returning along with the likes of Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett. Celtics center Kendrick Perkins will miss a significant chunk of time with a knee injury, but the defending Eastern Conference champions inked six-time All-Star center Jermaine O’Neal in a move to bolster the frontcourt in Perkins’ absence.

Depsite the busy offseason and key transactions, Rivers know that his team is playing a much more competitive Eastern Conference especially with the Miami Heat’s acquisitions of LeBron James and Chris Bosh to go along with the re-signing of Dwyane Wade.

“They’re good. They’re really good,” Rivers said of the Heat. “I don’t know if they’re the team to beat. The Lakers are the team to beat. We’re the Eastern Conference champs. They’ll have a bull’s-eye on them every game, but so will we, so will the Lakers and so will Orlando. The East will be fun.”

As for returning home to watch his children, that will have to wait for now. Rivers’ son Austin will be a senior at Winter Park High School in Winter Park, Fla. and is in the midst of being recruited by Division I powerhouses like Duke, North Carolina, Florida, Kansas and UCLA.

If Austin keeps it up and keeps making plays like the ones in the video below, Doc will have plenty of time to watch his son play in the NBA long after the coach decides to call it a career.