Orlando Magic coach Doc Rivers has spent a lot of time these last few weeks answering George Karl's statements. Karl, Head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, said that Rivers was "annointed" as an NBA coach instead of working his way up through the ranks. Phil Jasner of the Daily News reports that Rivers disagrees.

"I played in the league for Larry Brown, for Pat Riley, for Mike Fratello," Rivers was saying yesterday. "I feel as if I was an assistant to all those guys. Instead of reading about doing a pick-and-roll, I was out there doing them, figuring out ways to do them," he said. "When I woke up in the morning and could barely get out of bed because my back hurt, that tells me I paid some dues somewhere."

Karl's comments also questioned racial motivations behind the hiring of new coaches in the league. He said he expects "four or five more anointments of the young Afro-American" coaches.

Karl has said, in clarifying his position for reportrers, "I think we should have more black coaches, to be honest with you. But I want the system to be fair, too. I think we should have women referees, but I feel bad for guys who referee 25 years and are being skipped by. I don't know the true politically correct answer for this. But I think it would be fantastic to have equal membership of black coaches and white coaches. That's where we should go. This game has been dominated by the black athlete and it's been a fantastic game because of the black athlete."

Rivers understands that Karl has unsuccessfully campaigned to get his Bucks assistant, Terry Stotts, who is white, a head-coaching job.

"That's George," River said, shrugging. "The only part I didn't like was the racial part, and I don't think George is a racist. But that's the only part that really took me back. I don't want to hear about Terry Stotts or anybody else paying more dues than I did. The reason Terry Stotts was on the bench was because he couldn't play. If he could've played, he wouldn't have been on that bench. I was paying my dues while I was playing."