NBA press release:

NEW YORK — The National Basketball Association today unveiled the 15 Greatest Coaches in NBA History as part of the continuing celebration of the league’s 75th Anniversary Season.  The list was selected by a panel of 43 current and former NBA head coaches in collaboration with the National Basketball Coaches Association, which is led by President Rick Carlisle, the head coach of the Indiana Pacers, and Executive Director & General Counsel David Fogel.

Well now, it would appear that “a panel of 43 current former NBA head coaches” is a lot higher on Doc Rivers than Sixers fans are, because lo and behold, he made the list:

(NBA image)

Now listen, there are some damn good coaches on that list. Nine championships for Red Auerbach. 11 for Phil Jackson. Don Nelson and Lenny Wilkens have more than 1,300 career wins.

Doc only has one chip, but more than 1,000 wins, so that’s probably what got him on this list. Sixers fans will roll their eyes and point to the fact that he won a title 15 years ago with three Hall of Famers (plus Rajon Rondo), and note that he hasn’t done jack shit since. He’s blown multiple 3-1 playoff series leads. The Sixers crashed out in round two, etc.

The question, of course, is that if Doc Rivers isn’t on the list, who replaces him? You could make a case for Rudy Tomjanovich, who won more than 500 games and two titles in Houston. If Rick Adelman won a title, he could be on there. Likewise, George Karl really could have benefited from winning a ring. John Kundla is another guy that could have gone on the list.

It’s hard to say if Rivers belongs on here. Doc has the ring. He has the wins. He also really suffers in the “what have you done for me lately” category, going through his Clippers tenure and still-nascent Sixers tenure. Those Celtics teams were fantastic, but then you go over his Orlando seasons and that team never made it out of the first round.

More than anything, it just seems a little weird to see Doc on that list considering how Sixers fans currently feel about the job he’s doing here.