It’s been five years since beloved columnist Bill Simmons called for Doc Rivers to be fired as Boston Celtics coach.  He criticized Rivers for his coaching style, saying that the Celtics should “fire Rivers and see if the 2005-2006 Celtics could be salvaged with a competent coach.”  Now look at Doc Rivers… he’s considered one of the best, even by Simmons.

Doc Rivers is no longer in the playoffs, though.  Neither are coaching legends Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich.  And veterans George Karl and Stan Van Gundy were also eliminated early.  This means that one of these four coaches will win a championship this year: Scott Brooks, Rick Carlisle, Erik Spoelstra, or Tom Thibodeau.  All of them were hired within the last 5 years (Thibodeau is in his first year), and none of them have ever won a title as head coach.

I don’t consider a great coach a cause of winning, I see it more as an effect.  A team doesn’t become great because of its coach.  A coach becomes great because of his team.  I’m not arguing that Erik Spoelstra is (or will ever be) a better coach than Gregg Popovich, just that coaching matters less than the players you’re coaching.

The hometown Mavericks, who swept the Lakers in the conference semi-finals, didn’t have a better coach than the Lakers did.  But, apparently, they had the better team.  They had more talent(s).  Now they hope to take them to South Beach/South Side and win a title.