The Celtics coach will not have the power to, say, decide a late-game screen by Kevin Garnett was legal or anything, but he will be one of the first coaches to vote on proposed rule changes as a member of the NBA’s competition committee, the league announced Wednesday.
Rivers was one of three coaches named to the newly recomposed committee, which previously comprised the 30 general managers. The new body will include two owners, three coaches, four general managers and one representative of the National Basketball Players Association. The GMs will form a new committee.
Rivers, Rick Carlisle of the Mavericks and Lionel Hollins of the Grizzlies are the first three coaches to hold a committee post.
“The board decided that the inclusion of owners and head coaches on the competition committee would add valuable perspectives to discussions about our game and how it might be improved,” said Joel Litvin, NBA president of league operations, in a statement. “At the same time, we will continue to receive input on competition and rules matters from all 30 teams through the general managers committee.”
The competition committee mainly votes on changes to playing rules, with their recommendations brought to the board of governors for a vote.
This is quite a week for Rivers, who had another minor honor bestowed on him Monday when the Professional Basketball Writers Association granted him the Rudy Tomjanovich award for excellence in coaching and dealing with the media.
The other members of the committee are owners Dan Gilbert of the Cavaliers and Joe Lacob of the Warriors, general managers Bryan Colangelo of the Raptors, Mitch Kupchak of the Lakers and Kevin O’Connor of the Jazz, and a players association representative who will be appointed by the NBPA.
The committee’s first meeting is to take place during the NBA Finals. Rivers probably hopes to have other, on-court matters to deal with at that time.
Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.
