Doc Rivers won NBA Coach of the Year in 2000, before entering the 2026 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class.
Rivers received the award after guiding the Orlando Magic to a 41–41 record in the 1999–2000 season. The team had been expected to struggle after the departure of key veterans, but Rivers helped it remain competitive in his first season as an NBA head coach.
The award came early in Rivers’s coaching career. He later coached the Boston Celtics to the 2008 NBA championship and also led the Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers.
The year can be confused with 2008, which is associated with Rivers’s championship as Boston’s coach. His Coach of the Year award came eight years earlier, during his first season in Orlando.