Top Boston sports coach: Doc Rivers? Really?

The Boston Globe's Chris Gasper ranked the top Boston sports coaches on his blog the other day, and he named the Celtics' Doc Rivers No. 1.

Red Sox skipper Terry Francona was No. 2, the Patriots' Bill Belichick was No. 3, and Claude Julien of the Bruins was a deservedly distant fourth. You can debate Francona vs. Belichick all day long, depending on whether you value personnel management or on-field strategy more. But Doc Rivers shouldn't even be in that discussion.

Why did Gasper name Rivers the top Boston sports coach? Because he "somehow managed to coax an aging, disengaged, fourth-seeded team to within six minutes of an NBA title last season." Well, that's one way to look at it. You could also argued that he let a very talented team become disengaged and led them to a disappointing fourth-place finish before finally getting them to live up to their potential in the playoffs.

All the players love Doc, but his job the last three years hasn't exactly been the most challenging. He has three hall of famers and one of the league's best point guards. I'm not saying anything new here, but going to two finals and winning a championship with a stacked team doesn't mean you're an outstanding coach. It just means you don't suck.

Compare that to Francona, who lost most of his best players for significant periods of time this season and had to make Darnell McDonald, Daniel Nava and Ryan Kalish regular starters -- and still led the Sox to the fifth-best record in the American League. I doubt Rivers would be able to post similar results with such a dearth of talent.