New Sixers coach Doc Rivers was talking during a Zoom news conference Monday afternoon about who nudged him toward the profession, given that he played for some pretty notable guys during his 13-year run as an NBA point guard: Mike Fratello for eight years in Atlanta … Pat Riley for one full season and parts of two others with the Knicks … Bob Hill for nearly two in San Antonio … and even Larry Brown for 35 games with the Clippers.
Rivers, 59 years old and entering his 22nd year on the sideline, allowed that he had been fortunate to have such direction. But Riley, he said, “is the guy that I credit with (being) the only reason I’m coaching.”
“I had no interest in coaching,” he said. “I thought coaches were crazy. … I realize now I was right.”
It was a good line, and the assembled members of the Fourth Estate chuckled along, as indeed they are wont to do. It is also an example of Doc putting the best possible face on a situation. That should come in handy, given where the Sixers are in their development, and the many things that could go sideways for them in a season that begins with a home game Wednesday night against Washington.
To backtrack, Rivers played for Riley beginning in 1992, Rivers’ 10th NBA season. But he missed most of ‘93-94, when the Knicks lost to Houston in the Finals, following knee surgery. And he was not in Riley’s plans to start ‘94-95.
As it was once described by Ian O’Connor — who only this week ended a distinguished run at ESPN.com (following a just-as-distinguished run at the New York Daily News) — Rivers was none too happy about his diminished role. He confronted Riley in his office, and things grew so heated that there was concern they might come to blows. Rivers, after all, is a tough-minded Chicagoan. And Riley, associated as he might be with the glitz and glamour of the Showtime Lakers or the LeBron-era Heat, is at heart a gritty kid from upstate New York.
O’Connor wrote that neither man backed down, but Rivers asked to be cut. Riley complied, while suggesting that Rivers’ stubbornness was such that he might do well to someday consider coaching.
So here he is, all this time later, stubbornly trying to push the Sixers to new heights, while at the same time assuring one and all that things are proceeding as planned. Again, a pretty good toolkit to have, when there are questions about whether your stars, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, are an ideal fit alongside one another (to the point that there has been speculation about a Simmons-James Harden trade). Questions about whether the new coach can again bring out the best in Tobias Harris, as was the case when the two of them joined forces with the Clippers. Questions about how much Dwight Howard and Danny Green have left in the tank, whether Seth Curry can be the primary sniper and how strong the bench is.
Rivers admits they have a ways to go as a halfcourt team, but believes that will come. For now he wants his guys playing downhill, especially given the fact that the new coach “didn’t realize (Simmons) had the afterburners” he does.
“When he puts his speed on,” Rivers said, “it’s unbelievable how fast he is.”
Embiid is more deliberate, more apt to muscle to the rim or, too often, let fly from the arc. He has made just 32 percent of his 3s in his four seasons, while attempting over three a game. Yet Rivers betrayed no concern about his center’s shot selection, or anybody else’s for that matter (including Simmons, and we are all acutely aware of the issue there).
“I always thought it was the final score that mattered, not how we got to the final score,” Rivers said. “We score 110 points or 120 and Joel takes 19 3s … we scored 120. You know what I mean? I’ve never been one of those guys that got into shots. My job is to teach them what is a good shot, and then let them play, and give them the freedom to do that.”
And in the case of Embiid, he added, “There’s a big benefit of having him all over the floor.”
Rivers was a Coach of the Year his first season in Orlando, where he spent four-plus years in all. He was an NBA champion in Boston, where he spent nine seasons. And he won 48 games or more in six of the seven seasons he coached the Clippers.
He was reluctant to compare his current situation to the previous ones, saying only that “they’re all just different” while allowing that “it’s nice having talent to start.”
It is undeniable that the Sixers have that, and just as undeniable that they have flaws.
“It’s not more about what’s here,” Rivers said. “It’s how we use what’s here — how everybody buys into the way we need to play to win. To me, that’s the key — when that takes hold. And we’ll see when that happens.”
So he will stubbornly push forward, just as he did all those years ago, in Pat Riley’s office. At the same time he will serve as Dr. Feelgood, assuring us that things are hunky-dory, that we should (shudder) trust his process.
And maybe, just maybe, we should.