Doc Rivers: My Job Is Not Done Here

Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers has emphatically shut down speculation of him coaching anywhere else in the future.

Doc Rivers on Tuesday announced that he and Clippers team owner Steve Ballmer have verbally agreed to a contract extension.

He was speaking after the Clippers’ 115 – 109 win against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night. Responding directly to a question about him taking Luke Walton’s job across town, Doc Rivers was unequivocal.

“Well, I have a job and the Lakers have a coach, No. 1, and I am going nowhere,” Rivers said.

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“I can tell you that. Straight and up front, I’m going to be here until [Clippers owner] Steve [Ballmer] says get out. I plan on being here a long time.”

Rivers explained that he and Ballmer agreed to a contract extension last summer. That deal included an option for Rivers to exit the contract this summer. However, Rivers added that he and Ballmer have decided to forgo that option with a view to a longer extension.

“Just so we won’t talk about this for a while, let me end this right now: [Lakers president] Magic Johnson and I are very close friends, as you know, and that’s what we are,” Rivers said.

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“[But] early in this year, we [Ballmer and I] both decided let’s end this thing. Take this [option] out and extend and make it a longer deal. We’ve long decided on that. We just have chosen not to say anything about it. I’m here. My job is not done here.

“I came here for a lot of reasons, and one of them was obviously to win a world championship, and the other one was to make this a place that people respect and want to come here. I think we are accomplishing that part, but not the first part, yet. That’s my goal and that’s it. We don’t need to go on this anymore, thank you, please. I’m going to be here and I am looking forward to the future.”