Sixers counting on Rivers’ history with stars
Glenn“Doc” Rivers has plenty of experience coaching stars, so he should have a pretty good idea what it will be like as the 25th head coach in 76ers’ history.
Rivers coached Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady with the Orlando Magic, then Paul Pierce, KevinGarnett andRayAllen in Boston, and Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, K aw hi Leonard and Paul George with the Clippers.
The Sixers have Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, but haven’t made it past the Eastern Conference semifinals. It’s Rivers’ task to take the franchise to greater heights.
Rivers did so with the Celtics, where Pierce was the face of the organization when Danny A in ge acquired established all-stars Garnett and Allen in the summer of 2007. Rivers made it work right away, as Boston went an NBA-best 66-16 and defeated the Lakers 4-2 in the Finals to win the 2007-08 title. The Celts nearly wonit all two years later, falling 4-3 after holding a 3-2 Finals lead on Kobe Bryant and L.A.
In a 2019interview withSteve Bulpett of the Boston Herald, Rivers discussed what it’s like to get the most out of stars and convince the rest of the players to buy into their supporting roles on teams — like the current Sixers —with great expectations.
“Coach K [Mike Krzyzewski, for whom Rivers’ son Austin played for at Duke, always talked about the separators,” Rivers explained to Bulpett. “He said, ‘What we really want is for him to separate from everyone else, so we know. And then the next guy to separate from everyone else.’ But when you have eight of those guys. …
“The fan thinks ‘Well, they should all [welcome supporting roles] because they all wanttowinatitle, but eachguythinks doing it the wayhe’sdoingit is the reason you’re going to win a title. So it’s not as easy as it sounds.”
For the Sixers, that means the Josh
Richardsons and Al Horfords — assuming they are back — might need to touch the ball less and do more of the essential little things.
“Everybody has all-star dreams on their mind where, as a coach, you only have winning,” Rivers told Bulpett.
“That’s your only goal. So you hope they make [all-star teams], but you really don’t care. You want them to learn how to win. … You’ve got to convince them that winning [is] first, then everything else (follows).”
Em bi id figures to be the No .1 offensive threat, with Rivers strongly encouraging Simmons to take more of the open mid-range jumpers that are available to him and he shied away from under Brett Brown. Harris, who thrived in Rivers’ pick-and-roll-heavy system as a Clipper, should be the No. 3 guy.
Perhaps it’s fitting that a guy who got his nickname “Doc” from wearing a Julius “Dr. J” Erving T-shirt to a Marquette basketball camp is coach of the organization in which Ervin gt hr iv ed.
What happens from here is primarily up to Rivers, Embiid and Simmons.