The nine Hall of Famers coached by Doc Rivers and nine more who are on their way
New Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers has been an NBA head coach for 24 seasons, and he's overseen his share of star power. These are the players he's coached who already have a spot in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, plus another batch who are likely to find a place in Springfield down the line.
The list doesn't even include Giannis Antetokounmpo or Damian Lillard, two future Hall of Famers suiting up for the Bucks.
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Ben Wallace
The 2021 Hall of Fame inductee is known for his dominant defensive presence with the Pistons, with stints in Detroit that ran from 2000-06 and 2009-12. But early in his career before he'd cultivated that elite reputation, Wallace suited up one season for Orlando, his first year as a regular starter in 1999-2000. Wallace only scored 4.8 points per game in Rivers' first season as a head coach, but he also started every game and led the team with an average of 8.2 rebounds. Rivers was named the NBA coach of the year that season, with Orlando finishing at .500.
Tracy McGrady
The 2017 inductee signed with the Magic as a free agent before the 2000-01 season and instantly became the team's star (26.8 points per game). The Magic were eliminated by the Bucks in the first round of the NBA playoffs that season. McGrady was an all-star all four seasons in Orlando (all under Rivers), leading the league in scoring in back-to-back years with 32.1 points per game in 2002-03 and 28 in 2003-04.
Grant Hill
Hill, another established star, also arrived before the 2000 season, part of a sign-and-trade deal with the Pistons that sent Wallace to Detroit. But ankle injuries kept him sidelined for nearly the rest of Rivers' tenure in Orlando, with a combined 47 games played in his first three seasons and missing the entire 2003-04 campaign. Hill was, however, an all-star in 2005 after Rivers departed.
Patrick Ewing
You'd be forgiven for forgetting that Ewing spent one season in Orlando at the end of his career in 2001-02 (and a year in Seattle before that). With the Magic, he only started four games and scored 6.0 points per game at age 39, but he did appear in 65 games. The 11-time all-star with a legendary Knicks career was inducted in 2012.
Paul Pierce
From 2004-13, Rivers was head coach for the Boston Celtics, and Pierce was a part of every team, making eight of 10 all-star teams in that stretch. He never averaged fewer than 18.3 points per game in that window and appeared in fewer than 71 games just twice, when he saw the floor in 47 during the 2006-07 season and 61 in 2011-12. The NBA Finals MVP in 2008 was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2021. Pierce also played for Rivers with the Clippers in 2016-17.
Gary Payton
Bucks fans remember Payton for his ultra-short stint in Milwaukee after the franchise traded Ray Allen to Seattle in 2003, an unpopular maneuver that backfired when Payton left after the season for the Lakers and spent only 28 games with the Bucks. In 2004-05, after one year in Los Angeles, Payton played 77 games for the Celtics, scoring 11.3 points per game and 6.1 assists.
Ray Allen
Speaking of Allen, he was in Boston for a championship run in 2007-08, scoring 17.4 points per game and shooting 40% from 3-point range. On his way to becoming the NBA's all-time leader in three-pointers, Allen was acquired via trade in the summer of 2007, shortly before the Celtics also acquired Kevin Garnett to create a "big three" with Pierce. Allen, a 2018 Hall of Fame inductee, spent five seasons in Boston, making three all-star appearances.
Kevin Garnett
The 2007-08 championship run brought us the "anything is possible" GIF from Garnett, who spent 12 years in Minnesota before he was traded in advance of the 2007-08 season in a blockbuster that sent Al Jefferson and four other players the other way. The 2020 Hall of Fame inductee spent six seasons in Boston, making the all-star team every year but one and averaging 15.7 points per game for Rivers in that stretch, with 7.0 rebounds.
Shaquille O'Neal
The 15-time all-star and four-time champion was unlike any other player in the game, and though he's known primarily for his time with the Magic, Lakers and Heat, he did spent the 2010-11 season in Boston at age 38, his final year in the league. He averaged 9.2 points per game over 37 appearances with 4.8 rebounds. In 2016, Shaq was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Future Hall of Famers
Blake Griffin
The six-time all-star averaged 24.1 points per game for the Clippers in Rivers' first season in Los Angeles, in 2013-14. The former Rookie of the Year made an all-NBA team five times. With limited postseason success, he's not a slam-dunk case, but Basketball Reference puts the likelihood at greater than 54%.
Chris Paul
The slam-dunk Hall of Famer played for Rivers with the Clippers for four seasons from 2013-2017, making the all-star team three of those years. He led the league with 10.7 assists in 2013-14 and then again with 10.2 in 2014-15. Paul has been an all-star 12 times, led the league in steals six times and assists five times and made all-defensive time nine times, with 11 appearances on all-NBA teams.
Kawhi Leonard
He scored 27.1 points per game in 2019-20 for the Clippers, with 7.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists after signing as a free agent following his NBA championship season with Toronto. The Clippers went 49-23 that season but fell to Denver in the Western Conference semifinals despite 24.3 points per game by Leonard. Although, the pandemic interruption makes the whole postseason a weird one; at least one simulation saw a scenario in which the Clippers beat the Bucks in the Finals that year.
Leonard is a five-time all-star, a five-time member of All-NBA teams and a two-time NBA champion, plus a two-time Defensive Player of the Year.
Paul George
Not for the first time, a Doc Rivers-led team tried to assemble a stable of top-flight talent, adding Leonard and George before the 2019-20 season. George was acquired in a trade with the Thunder that sent Danilo Gallinari and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander the other way (plus draft considerations). George, an eight-time all-star who does appear to have a pretty safe Hall of Fame case, averaged 21.5 points that first season and hasn't averaged less than that in his five seasons with the Clippers, though injuries have kept him to no more than 56 games in any season. In his one season with Rivers, he shot 41% from 3-point range.
Dwight Howard
They didn't cross paths in Orlando, but Howard was in the twilight of his NBA career in 2020-21 when he played with the 76ers in Rivers' first year there. The big man is a likely Hall of Famer. He played in 69 games and averaged 7.0 points and 8.4 rebounds for the 76ers. Howard made eight all-star teams at his peak, primarily with Orlando but also with the Lakers and Houston, and he's led hte league in rebounds five times and blocks twice.
Joel Embiid
The 76ers superstar scored 28.5 points per game and averaged 10.6 rebounds in his first season with Rivers two years ago, then got even better with 30.6 points and 11.7 boards in 2021-22. And yet, his MVP season was still a year away, when he averaged 33.1 points and 10.2 boards last year in leading the 76ers to a 54-28 record. Embiid may not have yet solidified a long enough playing career to establish a Hall of Fame resume, but it's easy to see where this is going.
James Harden
Harden has been a magnet for drama, but he's also one of the best players of his generation. He averaged 21 points and a league-best 10.7 assists per game last year with Philadelphia before he was traded to the Clippers this offseason under tumultuous circumstances. It was his second season with Rivers; Harden was traded from Brooklyn to Philadelphia in 2021-22 and averaged 21 points per game in 21 appearances with the Sixers that year, plus 10.5 assists.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Nine Hall of Famers (and others on their way) coached by Doc Rivers
