Rivers is a spitting image of his late father, 'Moon.' So much so he was nicknamed, 'Quarter Moon.' But he picked up more than that. Grady Rivers Sr. taught him how to be a man and care for others.
MAYWOOD, Ill. — Every few months, when the situation demands it, Doc Rivers speaks out about social injustice, racial profiling, or whatever hot topic is gripping our country.
To know Glenn, as they call Rivers in his hometown, is to know he comes from a family that makes milestones. But Brewer’s biggest accomplishment might have been helping end the racial divide in Maywood in the late 1960s. Nor did the time when a defender undercut Rivers during a super sectional game in his senior season at Proviso East. Grandma Brewer was listening to the game on the radio when the play-by-play announcer called it a dirty play.
Everything about Glenn Rivers — his walk, voice, look, and 6-foot-4 height — reminds people of Moon. So much so that Grady Jr. frequently get calls from friends watching Sixers games, saying, “If that ain’t Moon Rivers.” Perhaps it was a good thing the Rivers family moved from their two-flat Maywood apartment on 14th Avenue and Washington Boulevard to a single-family house at 1413 South 16th Ave. in 1967. There, the family had four bedrooms, two baths, and a garage in the backyard.
Grady Sr. used to take Rivers and Cooper to school in his patrol car. “So I was like, when I grow up, I want to be a policeman,” Cooper said.Grady Sr.’s younger brother, Jim Brewer, and Grady Jr., a former all-state basketball player at Proviso East High School, were equally as athletic.Adds Grady Jr.: “I have never seen anybody hit a baseball as far as my dad could hit a baseball. He could hit a baseball a country mile.
“He was a sergeant and I followed in his footsteps,” Cooper said. “So a lot of things are embedded in you and you don’t even know it. I always wanted to be a policeman.” “That’s the kind of support we had,” Grady Jr. said. “We were lucky because we were sort of middle class. We weren’t poor. Never wanted for nothing. Didn’t have everything, but didn’t want for nothing with being a policeman and my mother always worked.”
“It means a lot to us that he gave back to the community,” said Xavier Nelson, a 2011 Proviso East graduate and former basketball player. “As a kid growing up in Maywood, going to 10th Park and seeing the Reebok logo gave kids hope. They said if Doc Rivers, who came from here, could do it, so could we.
“That title brought all races together, because it naturalized sports,” Cooper said. “So that kind of calmed everything down. And Papa was the focal point. He was like, ‘Hey guys, let’s get this together for them,’ because they were going to side with Fred Hampton. He said, ‘We are going to do it.’ ...
“My father and Jim Brewer are the biggest inspirations in my life,” Glenn Rivers said. “My mom and my dad. But my father was No. 1. First of all, he scared the hell out of us. He was a big, strong cop.”“We were like, ‘We ain’t ever messing with that dude,’” Rivers said. “He was arresting someone, bringing him out of the house. And we just saw how physical he was and was like, ‘That’s it for us.’”Fire Doc Rivers? Don’t be ridiculous. He was, in fact, terrific for the Sixers.
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