Sports

DOC GETS EMOTIONAL

LOS ANGELES – Celtics coach Doc Rivers was choked by emotion during yesterday’s press conference at the Lakers’ practice facility, unable to speak for nearly a minute.

Imagine what kind of mess Rivers will be tomorrow night at Staples Center if he wins his first championship and the Celtics win their 17th on Rivers’ first Father’s Day without his father.

The Celtics, after the Lakers choked on a 24-point lead Thursday night, lead the best-of-seven 3-1, on the cusp of completing the greatest one-season turnaround in sports history. No team in NBA Finals history has recovered from a 3-1 deficit.

Rivers became speechless when asked about his father, who died in November when the Celtics were in Toronto. After the near-minute pause, Rivers, the ex-Knicks guard, said, “That’s just a tough one for me to talk about.”

Minutes later, after regaining composure, Rivers said, “To go back to my dad, he’s just very important in my life. It’s still very difficult for me to talk about because I haven’t had a lot of time to reflect on it. But I do think about it, a lot.”

Legend Bill Walton says Rivers has “outschooled” Phil Jackson in this series, he of the record-tying nine titles. Humble as ever, Rivers said, “I don’t think it’s true. I’m not in that class.”

Rivers’ coaching job in Game 4’s historic 97-91 comeback win was one for the ages. Rivers went the second half without two injured starters, Rajon Rondo (ankle) and Kendrick Perkins (shoulder). Rivers expertly used bench men, James Posey and Eddie House, to orchestrate their colossal comeback – largest in Finals history dating to at least 1970-1971.

Former Garden president Dave Checketts always envisioned Rivers as a future Knicks coach. Rivers said yesterday his Knicks days were the only times he had a championship in his reach – the 1994 Finals vs. Houston and the conference finals vs. the Bulls, up 2-0.

Against Houston, Rivers was injured, tearing up his knee in December vs. the Lakers on the same night Patrick Ewing set the Knicks’ all-time scoring record, according to Knicks historian Dennis D’Agostino.

Now he’s ready to finally win one season after “Fire Rivers” chants resonated in the new Boston Garden during a 24-win season.

“I’m thankful Danny (Ainge) hung in there with me,” Rivers said.

After the Lakers’ collapse, Kobe Bryant said he’d need “a lot of wine, a lot of beer, a couple of shots, maybe 20 of them,” to get over the loss. Jackson said it didn’t appear Kobe was hung over.

“They looked clear-eyed today,” Jackson said.

But all of La-La land was suffering from a Friday morning hangover

“I told them as a team, they had their heart ripped out,” Jackson said. “It’s tough to recover from that but they will.”

marc.berman@nypost.com