When Ty Lue was a player, he had little interest in coaching. 19 years after Doc Rivers first broached the idea to him, Lue now has one NBA title, two conference championships and one other conference final appearance to his name.
Lue had played for Rivers with the Orlando Magic, and it was in 2003 that Rivers told Lue that he would have a job for him when the time came -- but Lue never wanted to become a coach.
Once Lue retired and realized he still wanted to be in basketball, he changed course gave Rivers a call. One day later, he was a member of the Boston Celtics’ staff.
“In 2003 I played for Doc in Orlando, and that’s the year he got fired,” Lue said on the “Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles” podcast. “I was having my best year ever, and he said ‘You know, when you get done playing you get done playing you can come coach with me.’ I was like what, I ain’t coaching, I ain’t never going to do that. So in 2009 I was done playing and was like what else am I going to do, I don’t know nothing but basketball. So I called Doc and he said 'OK, I’ll call you back tomorrow and let you know.' I was like yeah right, I know what that means. But he called me back the next day and he had a job for me, him and Danny Ainge.”
Lue served under Rivers with the Celtics until Rivers went to the Clippers, with Lue following him to Los Angeles. After a run with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lue went back to Los Angeles to be an assistant on Rivers’ staff before taking over as head coach in 2020 when Rivers went to the 76ers.
So, in most ways, all roads for Lue have led back to Rivers.
“He means everything, without Doc I wouldn’t be here,” Lue said. “For him to see something in me in 2003 that I didn’t see in myself, that just means a lot. He thought that I could be a great coach, and I’ve got a lot of work to do, but he gave me that platform to get there. Everything I did when I first took over was Doc Rivers-driven, everything.
“When I was coaching with him in Boston and with the Clippers, I used to go watch his press conferences. Say we had a bad game or there was some turmoil or something bad happened, I wanted to go see how he handled it. I’d go stand in the back of the room just to see how Doc addressed it and how he handled it. Like, the Donald Sterling thing, how is he going to speak about it, how is he going to talk about it, what’s going to happen? I just learned so much from him, everything I do is Doc Rivers-driven.
“Now I’ve been around the game for enough time where I can put my own imprint on certain things and do stuff differently. But a lot of stuff I do, it comes from Doc and I just appreciate everything he’s done for me because without him I wouldn’t be here.”
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