HT Old Milwaukee (1-2) 52 Yellow Basketball Team 63

This is an deisty rivalry, pitting as it does, two old, run-down, small-market Rust Belt cities, one so anonymous that its nickname is Indiannoplace. So there's a lot at stake. The stakes are instantiated in one Glenn Anton Rivers, known everywhere for reasons unknown anywhere, as "Doc". Doc is 63 years old and still has cache as head coach for two feats, NBA Coach of the Year and NBA champion. Those are indeed glittering bullet-points on any coach's CV. However, the first crown was earned when some of his current players had yet to see their first dawn, and the second in 2008, 17 years ago. Doc won COTY with Orlando and became NBA Champion coach with Beans. He coached three more seasons after winning COTY and then moved to Bean Town, the reasons and wherefors of his Disney exit written on papyrus and lost to the ravages of time. He coached Beans for nine years, which included lifting the Larry O'Brien trophy. Five years after that crown he left or was advised to leave for La-La Clip-Clip. Doc lasted seven years in SoCal--these are all long stays strongly indicating mutual satisfaction of employer and employee. But longevity ran out in his next stop in Philadelphia, three years, and this, to be honest surprising, elevation in Beer Town in 2024 is showing worrying signs of going as flat and stale as a day-old pilsner. It has never been altogether clear what Doc does to motivate his players to play their best besides yelling, accompanied by vigorous clapping, to "Come on!" That effective measure has not had its intended inspiration in either of these season in Old Milwaukee, and I have no inside intel to state the obcious, but another playoff exit to Indiana again may serve to truncate his tenure in Beer. It is now 73-84 in the Bierhaus and perhaps "Come on" will roust the Male Deer to a charge to the finish line and a victory, but the odds are agin' it, the odds are that Yellow will take a 3-1 lead back to Noplace and perhaps close Glenn Anton "Doc" Rivers career coaching in the NBA. *Update 79-88, 2:44 3Q.