Monday, June 24, 2013

Clippers reach deal with Celtics to hire Doc Rivers as coach

The Los Angeles Clippers have reached an agreement in principle to send an unprotected 2015 first-round draft pick to the Boston Celtics for the rights to hire coach Doc Rivers, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Rivers has agreed to a three-year, $21 million deal with the Clippers, league sources said.
Doc Rivers is nearing a deal to become the Clippers' new coach. (USA Today Sports)Talks started again on Sunday when the Clippers offered the Celtics the first-round pick to free Rivers from his contract with Boston, sources said.
The NBA still needs to grant approval to the deal, but the teams have been led to believe that won't be a problem, sources said.
The Clippers and Rivers believe Rivers' arrival will solidify star free agent Chris Paul's commitment to sign a five-year contract extension in July, sources said.
Rivers told the Clippers that he was no longer interested in the position on Friday, but pressure from Paul stayed strong on Clippers management over the weekend and Los Angeles reconsidered its unwillingness to give Boston a first-round pick, sources said.
Clearly, Rivers' telling the Clippers he no longer had interest in the job – and the Celtics setting a Friday deadline for a deal – were negotiating postures to leverage the Clippers back with a better offer.
Rivers had gone into the weekend planning to decide his future with the Celtics, and sources said he had been leaning strongly toward returning next season to fulfill the three years and $21 million left on his contract. With the Celtics moving into a rebuilding phase, several sources told Yahoo! Sports that Boston management preferred draft-pick compensation over paying for an elite coach.

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