When the New Orleans Hornets face the Boston Celtics on Saturday, new Hornets head coach Monty Williams will see the person who started him down the path to coaching--Doc Rivers.

“He was the first person to tell me I was going to be a coach,” Williams said of Rivers. “He told me a lot of things when I was a player with him and for him. He’s always willing to take time to pour stuff into me that most guys in this league didn’t. He’s the first guy really to pull me by the collar and adamantly tell me to work on my game, because I wasn’t doing the right things, the things that were going to help me have a long career.”

Williams first met Rivers in 1994 when he was a rookie on the Knicks and Rivers was a 12-year veteran. Three years after Rivers ended his playing career, he was coaching the Orlando Magic and Williams signed on to play for him.  In Williams' second year with the Magic, Rivers told him he would end up being a coach.

“I thought he was crazy,” Williams said. “He just said, ‘Monty, you’re going to be a head coach someday.’ And I was like, ‘Where did that come from?’ Because he was on me all the time. Yelling at me, screaming at. I just thought he was crazy."

In hindsight, it all makes sense to Williams—Rivers was tough on him, but it doesn’t seem so crazy now. As he is pushing his team down a very difficult last few weeks, he is showing his players the same kind of tough love Rivers showed him.