Doc Rivers still working to fully reunite 2008 title team

Doc Rivers hasn’t been a Celtic for over four years now, but the city’s imprint on him has not subsided over that span.

“People here are invested in the team,” Rivers said at the ABCD fundraiser event at the TD Garden last week. “This is different. A lot of people and a lot of fan bases, they cheer for the team and the city. It just feels like Boston, in general, they invest in their teams and invest in their athletes. They know their history.”

One critical piece of Celtics’ history that is fast approaching this upcoming season is the 10-year anniversary of the 2007-08 title team. The Celtics plan on honoring the team at some point over the course of next season, and despite the bad blood that lingers between key members of that roster and Ray Allen, Rivers is eager to take part in the festivities.   

“I am,” Rivers said of the pending reunion. “I just hope we get the whole team back. I think that's important. That's very important to me that everyone comes.”

The Clippers head coach spoke about his attempts to mend fences between members of the original starting five and Allen after a messy departure in the summer of 2012.

“Yeah. I've not been very successful, but I do think we have to [get everyone for the reunion],” Rivers declared. “I really believe that. Without them, we don't win it. It doesn't matter how it ended. At the end of the day, without them, we don't win it. We need to get over all the other stuff and get together. That team was too close to have any separation. For me, that bothers me that they're not together.”

Even though Rivers didn’t know it last week, it appears that his attempts to soften the ground for the reunion have worked after all. Paul Pierce and Allen apparently reconnected in China over the weekend, and Pierce publicly dropped a longstanding grudge against Allen while also appealing to Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo to drop theirs.

Time to get the band back together @trayfour #burythehatchet @tic_pix @rajonrondo no matter what happen we all formed a special bond that can never b broken #onceacelticalwaysaceltic

A post shared by The Truth (@paulpierce) on Sep 9, 2017 at 8:44pm PDT