We learned about it back in March. Rumors that the Lakers were interested in poaching Doc Rivers away from the Clippers surfaced and Rivers quickly squashed them saying he and Clippers’ owner Steve Ballmer had agreed to a long-term extension to keep him as the team’s coach.
However, at the time Rivers hadn’t put pen to ink to sign the extension.
That has changed, Rivers signed the extension he told Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times.
Rivers had done a short-term extension with the Clippers last summer, but that deal gave both sides the chance to get out of the contract after this season. The new one does not have that exit clause.
Rivers has said all season he loves coaching this Clippers team.
“I’ve never been more proud of a group of guys in the 20 years that I’ve coached,” Doc Rivers said comparing this team to his championship 2008 Celtics. “They were just really fun. As I’ve said before, I’ve never had a group where you wanted to, in the morning, you raced to the car, you raced to practice just because you love being around them. So for me, it was just a pleasure to coach them.”
What the loss to the Warriors showed is the Clippers are short one superstar to go with their elite team. That could change this summer, but either way Rivers will be back.
