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BOSTON (AP) -- Austin Rivers had been
looking forward to this game since he was drafted 10th overall by the
New Orleans Hornets.
Doc Rivers had been dreading it almost as long.
The Hornets rookie visited Boston on
Wednesday night to face his father's team, just the fourth time in NBA
history that a father has coached against his son.
"It's something I really did not look
forward to," Doc Rivers said before the game. "You're trying to win a
game and you're trying to win a game that your son is playing in. You
raise your kid; you want them to do well. It's strange."
The Rivers are the fourth father-son pair to face each other in an NBA game.
Denver Nuggets coach George Karl faced
his son, Los Angeles Lakers guard Coby Karl, in 2007-08 and again in the
playoffs that season. Mike Dunleavy Sr. was coaching the Clippers in
2003 when they faced his son, Mike Jr., and the Golden State Warriors.
In 1976, Jan van Breda Kolff played for the Nets against his father,
Butch von Breda Kolff, and the New Orleans Jazz.
"I'll enjoy it more maybe later," Doc Rivers said. "Hopefully he will have bigger days. But for me, it will be special."
The entire Rivers family was in Boston
for the event, including Doc's wife Kristen and their other three
children. Doc Rivers said he was the one who had to take care of tickets
for the family, "so he had to do nothing."
Still, Austin Rivers was confident he knew whom his mother was rooting for.
"Me," he said with a mischievous smile. "Because she loves me more."
Doc Rivers was an NBA star himself,
mostly for the Atlanta Hawks during a 13-year career from 1983-96.
Austin Rivers, who was born in 1992, grew up hanging around the NBA,
especially since his father became a coach in Orlando and Boston.
"I think a lot of guys or a lot of
people try to hide the fact that they're going against a team that they
know very well, or when they go against their father, they try to
pretend it's a normal game. It's pretty much impossible to do that so I
just try to treat it as it is," he said.
"I'm just going to have fun with it.
This is a fun chance, you know. I'm more excited to play against a
playoff-caliber team, a hall of fame team, that's why I'm just really
excited to go out there and compete tonight, and just have fun in the
game whether things are going well or not, and hopefully we will win."
The younger Rivers acknowledged that it might not be so fun for his dad.
"He has to balance more than I do,"
Austin Rivers said. "I just have to go out there and play my best and
help my team win, where as he has to go out there and try to game plan
against me and then he wants to be happy for me at the same time. So he
kind of has a double-edged sword for him, whereas for me I just go out
there and play.
"I'm sure he doesn't really like all
this, so I know he's waiting for this night to be over with, whereas for
me, I'm waiting for it to get started."
The two spoke briefly during pregame
warmups, and Austin Rivers got a big cheer from the opposing crowd when
he checked into the game with 4:19 left in the first half. Doc Rivers
leaned back to say something to the assistant coaches sitting behind him
and cracked a brief smile.
Austin Rivers spent much of his first
shift staking out a position on the right side of the court, which
placed him in front of the Celtics' bench; there was no interaction with
his father's team. With about one minute left in first quarter, he
muscled a hook shot in for a basket, but his father had no reaction.
Austin Rivers, who said he has been
able to beat his father one-on-one since the eighth or ninth grade, said
it was easier because his dad wasn't on the court.
"It's not as crazy as it seems, `cause
he's a coach," he said. "I'm not playing against him, you know, he's
just coaching. It would be one thing if he was somehow still playing."
