Doc Rivers Pulls Off One Final Celtics Coaching Feat At Hall Of Fame originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Doc Rivers’ greatest coaching achievement came when he guided the Boston Celtics to the 2008 NBA championship.
His final accomplishment involving that historic team did not require a clipboard.
Rivers brought Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen together as his presenters for Saturday’s Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony in Springfield, Mass. Seeing Boston’s former Big Three share the stage again carried considerable meaning. Allen’s departure for the Miami Heat in 2012 fractured his relationship with several former Celtics teammates, particularly Garnett.
Rivers made it a personal goal to reunite all three players for his induction.
“I think when you win it, you should be together for life,” Rivers said. “Those three in particular have had their ups and downs. The fact that all three agreed to be together on this stage and kind of have dropped the BS is just absolutely amazing.”
Rivers then joked that the reunion “may be my last good coaching feat.”
Celtics Big Three Reunites For Rivers
Boston acquired Allen and Garnett during the summer of 2007, pairing them with Pierce after the Celtics had gone 24-58 the previous season. The results were immediate.
Doc Rivers reflects on coaching Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce and the @celtics’ 2008 NBA championship during his @Hoophall enshrinement speech! pic.twitter.com/vY44KOq9vk
— NBA (@NBA) August 16, 2026
The Celtics finished the 2007-08 regular season with a league-best 66-16 record. They defeated the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons before eliminating the Los Angeles Lakers in six games to win the franchise’s first championship since 1986. Rivers made sure his three stars understood the sacrifices required to make the partnership work. Pierce, Garnett and Allen each accepted smaller individual roles in pursuit of a championship.
The result helped reshape the NBA. Boston’s success accelerated the league’s movement toward star-driven roster construction, most notably when LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade in Miami two years later. Allen ultimately joined that Heat team in 2012.
His decision ended his five-year run in Boston and created a divide with former teammates who believed he should have communicated with them before joining one of their greatest Eastern Conference rivals. The relationships gradually improved. Allen and Garnett shared an embrace during Garnett’s Celtics jersey retirement ceremony in 2022, providing a public sign that the hostility had begun to fade.
Saturday offered an even more complete reunion.
“When you win a title, it’s like receiving a blood transfusion,” Rivers told Pierce, Garnett and Allen during his enshrinement speech. “You three guys are connected for the rest of your lives. You really are. And I want you guys to hear that and understand that.”
Boston Defined Rivers’ Hall Of Fame Career
Rivers coached five NBA franchises, but his nine seasons in Boston remain the defining stretch of his career. He arrived in 2004 and endured two losing seasons before the Celtics assembled their championship core. Rivers coached Boston to seven playoff appearances, two NBA Finals and the 2008 title before leaving for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2013.
Rivers also credited former Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, who hired him and then constructed the championship roster.
“Danny Ainge, man, we were just a great team, you and I,” Rivers said. “I say this to coaches and front office guys all the time: If you make that group a team, then you will have a successful team.”
Rivers finished his coaching career with 1,194 regular-season victories, the sixth-highest total in NBA history. He coached 2,060 games, won the 2000 NBA Coach of the Year Award with the Orlando Magic and was named one of the 15 greatest coaches in league history.
He also played 13 NBA seasons before moving to the bench. His Hall of Fame résumé is much larger than one championship. Yet Rivers will forever be connected most closely to the Celtics team that ended Boston’s 22-year title drought.
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Celtics Championship Bond Remains Intact
Boston’s Big Three spent only five seasons together, but the impact of that partnership has lasted for nearly two decades. Pierce, Garnett and Allen now are Hall of Famers. Rivers joined them Saturday as a member of the Class of 2026, which also included Mike D’Antoni, Mark Few, Amar’e Stoudemire, Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne, Chamique Holdsclaw, Joey Crawford and the 1996 United States women’s Olympic team.
Rivers became emotional while discussing his family, parents and the people who helped him throughout his career. Still, one of the ceremony’s most memorable moments belonged to the Celtics.
The coach who persuaded three stars to sacrifice for one another in 2007 brought them together again in 2026. The championship they won continues to connect them, even after trades, free-agent decisions and years of strained relationships.
For Rivers, seeing Pierce, Garnett and Allen together might have been the perfect conclusion to his coaching story.