It’s in the genes.

And so they say for the father-and-son tandem of Doc and Austin Rivers.

Doc Rivers, who has pondered on his future as head coach of the Boston Celtics following a bitter Game 7 loss at the Staples Center against the Los Angeles Lakers in the recent NBA Finals, has temporarily shifted his focus to the splendid performance of his son, Austin, a senior shooting guard at Winter park High School in Florida.

Austin Rivers has been heaping praises recently after being ranked No. 1 in the latest college recruitment rankings by Rivals.com. Not only that, he also became an instant YouTube sensation when a video of him surfaced, crossing over this year’s NBA top Rookie Pick John Wall of the Washington Wizards for an uncontested layup, before stripping the ball from Wall, again, on the defensive end.

“He averaged 24.3 points last season and had a 45-point performance against highly touted Newark St. Benedict’s Prep (New Jersey),” writes Yahoo! Sports’ Marc Spears. “At the Boost Mobile Elite 24 prep all-star game last Saturday at Venice Beach, he was selected co-MVP after totaling 15 points, four assists and four rebounds despite playing with a sprained right wrist.”

"Rivers has the size and athleticism you love to see in a combo guard," says Rivals.com's director of basketball recruiting Jerry Meyer of the top-ranked player in the class. "He is one of those guys who is guaranteed to produce offensively and also has the tools to be a high level defender. Once he gets into college and the NBA, I expect him to refine and focus his game and become a much more efficient player. At the end of the day, I expect him to be the top player out of this class."

The 6-foot-3 Austin Rivers has been getting a lot of attention from premier college basketball coaches, and has narrowed down his choices to four institutions — Florida, Duke, North Carolina, and Kansas.

“I only got one chance to make a decision,” Austin said. “iI didn’t want to go through the transferring process after I saw my brother go through it. I want to make sure I made the right decision,” referring to his older brother Jeremiah, who transferred from Georgetown to Indana, thus stalling his own basketball career in the process.

With all his children involved and making their own names in their respective sports, Doc Rivers has planned to return to Boston and resume his assignment of preparing the Celtics to a return trip to Finals in the upcoming NBA season.

“I do get to a ton of their games. I watch them a lot. They are all doing well, so they don’t need me around much,” the elder rivers said, as quoted by Spears. “At the end of the day, they all said the same thing: ‘You’re a coach and the last time you were here for a year you drove us crazy. Go back and coach.’ ”

Whatever decision Austin Rivers makes in the future, only one thing is certain: the young Rivers will continue to improve in a lot of aspects of his game and, provided that he gets enough success to make it to the NBA, will surely be a hit in the world’s premier basketball league.