BOSTON — Whenever Doc Rivers returns to Boston, it’s only right to compare his new superstars to his former “Big 3.”
Prior to the Celtics game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night, Rivers was asked how coaching Kawhi Leonard and Paul George compares to his days coaching Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
“It’s just different, you know,” Rivers said. “They’re younger, one when we got them. And that helps in someways you know in the long run hopefully that will help. You know Kawhi, he’s nowhere near outward like Kevin (Garnett), but there’s a lot of Kevin in him. You know, as far as how serious he approaches the game, and sees the game, prepares for the game. You know that is very similar.
“Then PG is, just watching him shoot and work you know reminds me of Ray in someways in that way. He takes a lot of shots. You laugh at some of the young guys cause you know, Ray would take 100, 200 more shots than everybody in the gym and I’m always saying to Paul, how could you ever be better than Ray if he’s already a better shooter and he’s still taking more practice shots added this makes no sense to me. And I’ve been telling the young guys that and some of them never caught on to that. You know you get better by working at it.”
Rivers clearly has a special place in his heart for every single one of his players. So while comparing them may be tough, it’s not a bad group to compare by any means.
