{"id":692183,"date":"2026-04-01T16:29:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T16:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/692183\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T16:29:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T16:29:24","slug":"former-clippers-coach-part-of-naismith-basketball-hall-of-fame-class-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/692183\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Clippers Coach Part of Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers talks to Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) as he leaves the game against the New Orleans Pelicans in the fourth quarter at Staples Center.<\/p>\n

Former Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2026, according to a report from ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania.<\/p>\n

Joining Rivers in the class are six-time WNBA All-Star Amar\u2019e Stoudemire and former WNBA MVPs and champions\u00a0Candace Parker and Elena Delle Donne. There will likely be more inductees added to the class in the future.<\/p>\n

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Rivers coached the Clippers during the franchise\u2019s iconic \u201cLob City\u201d era. He also won the 2008 NBA Championship with the Boston Celtics and was named the 1999-2000 NBA Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n

In his final season with the Clippers, Rivers coach current superstar Kawhi Leonard in his rookie season.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers talks to Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) as he leaves the game against the New Orleans Pelicans in the fourth quarter at Staples Center.<\/p>\n

Rivers Is A Polarizing Figure in Clippers\u2019 History<\/p>\n

Rivers had a polarizing reputation during his stint with the Clippers. Some former players have spoken about their experiences with Rivers as head coach.<\/p>\n

Former Clippers forward Glen \u201cBig Baby\u201d Davis said one of his biggest issues with Rivers came after he had security escort Davis back to the locker room following a heated verbal exchange on the bench in March 2014.<\/p>\n

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Davis said that experience was embarrassing and \u201ckilled his career\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another former player, shooting guard Lou Williams, had a different opinion about Rivers. He credited Rivers for helping him put together some of the strongest seasons of his career in which he won two of his three NBA Sixth Man of the Year Awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Doc. It\u2019s a grey area with Doc. Either guys really love him, or they\u2019ve got the worst sh*t in the world to say about Doc. That wasn\u2019t my experience. \u201d Williams said on \u201cThe Underground Lounge<\/a>\u201d in August 2024. \u201cThere\u2019s a handful of guys that really don\u2019t rock with Doc. I have to tell you, that wasn\u2019t my experience man. When I got here, I thought my career was done, so I wasn\u2019t excited to be a Clipper. Doc reassured me. That ended up being the best run of my career. That made people appreciate everything that I put into it, and I give Doc a lot of credit for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers talks to Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) as he leaves the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[14275,7,75,87323,559,2660,47108,529,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,4851,6,470],"class_list":{"0":"post-692183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-amare-stoudemire","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-champions-candace-parker","12":"tag-clippers","13":"tag-doc-rivers","14":"tag-elena-delle-donne","15":"tag-kawhi-leonard","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-clippers","18":"tag-laclippers","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-losangelesclippers","23":"tag-lou-williams","24":"tag-nba","25":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116330403066408115","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}