While we’re on the topic of the Magic, I was watching Jim Rome is Burning yesterday, and caught Rome’s interview with Doc Rivers. Doc always seems to be honest in his interviews, and that was the case yesterday as well, something he said at the end though really got my attention.

Rome essentially asked him what it was like to know that Danny Ainge had his back, even when the Celtics stunk. The full transcript of the question and answer is below.

Rome: How much does it mean to you that Danny Ainge stood by you and extended you and said this is my guy, we’re in it with him?

Doc: Well, it was key. It was really important. He has been fantastic with me. He understood what we had. You know before the year started last year he told me it’s going to be a tough one, you’re going to have to have to stand in there, and I really need you to do that, and I’ll stand behind you…

You know Jim it’s rare in our profession when that happens. You know how it works, a lot of times they (other teams) tell you you’re going to work with a young team, and then in the middle of that when the losing starts, you don’t feel the support.

I didn’t have that in my case (with the Celtics), I’m very lucky and I understand that every day I coach that I had great ownership and Danny Ainge behind me and that was very important to my success.”

The conclusion I drew from this is that Doc is still mad at the Magic for dumping him. He liked it in Orlando (he still has a house in town), he wanted to stay for a long time, and he felt that he wasn’t given the time to turn things around. While he didn’t flat out say it in this interview, I belive that Doc feels like he was lied to by the Magic’s front-office people, and if I had to guess, it might be John Gabriel he is still most upset with.

I said it at the time, and I’ll say it again now, I think Doc is a good coach. He shouldn’t have been fired when he was, but even he conceded, that’s just how it is most of the time in the NBA. Even in that last year in Orlando though, his teams always played hard, that team in 2003 was just TERRIBLE.

The team won its first game and then lost 10 in a row and Doc was gone. I think the team ended up losing 18 or 19 in a row…whatever…they were bad. It just goes to show you that no matter how great a coach is, they can’t win without talent, and that team in 2003 didn’t have much at all.

Look at some of those names…Desmond Penigar, Sean Rooks, Britton Johnson, Mengke Bateer, Derrick Dial, Reece Gaines, Steven Hunter….I know Grant Hill was hurt, but come on, they signed Juwan Howard to a big deal. I mean nobody would have won with this team, even with Tracy McGrady on it. The ’03-04 Magic team reminds me a lot of this year’s Heat squad…

It brings up an interesting point though, especially when you look at those last two names, Reece Gaines, and Steven Hunter. Those players were first-round draft picks by the Magic. Who pulled the trigger on those picks? Was it Gabriel or Doc? If it was Gabriel, that really wouldn’t surprise anyone, he made lots of bad picks as the GM, just like lots of other GMs.

But if it was Doc, then that proves two things. First, the Devos Family got fed up with his personnel decsions, and let him go because of that. And secondly, this time around in Boston, Ainge makes all the personnel calls, and Doc just focuses on coaching.

Either way, both Doc, and the Magic, are in much better situations than they were before, but there is no doubt that Doc still harbors some ill-will towards the team that let him go.