Rivers rips Booker’s NBA MVP doubters
Doc Rivers doesn’t pay attention to his team Philadelphia 76ers’ record (4628) as much as their quality of play. “I don’t even know our record. I don’t look at records. I really don’t,” Rivers said during the 76ers-Suns pregame media session on Sunday.
However, Philadelphia’s coach had enough knowledge to cite that matchup as the Eastern and Western Conference’s top teams squaring off in Phoenix. The 76ers had the East’s best record before they lost, 114-104, and fell to the fourth spot.
Rivers also expressed how closely he’s tracked the Suns’ seismic team cultural shift over the past few years because of their coach Monty Williams, Chris Paul and building around Devin Booker, who has been a hotly-debated member of this season’s MVP conversation.
Booker had a team-high 35 points, Paul contributed 19 points and gamehigh 14 assists to lead Phoenix over Philly.
“I think culture first, wins second. I believe that,” Rivers said to the media. “Monty came in here and changed the culture, and obviously he had Chris Paul to help him shepard that, And then you have Devin (Booker) to accept that, having had been here already.
“What I see — I said it last year to our (76ers) guys last year the first time we played them, that was early — I said, ‘This is the best team in the West. They’re a bought-in team.’ When you see that, that doesn’t mean they’re gonna win it or anything like that. That means they’re gonna be a tough out, and they’ve escalated. They’ve taken it to another level.”
Rivers added that the defending West champion Suns, who have the NBA’s best record (61-14), have played like they have a chip on their shoulder after losing in last year’s finals.
They’ve snared multiple firsts among the league’s teams this season: first to clinch a playoff spot from their win at then-East leader Miami Heat on March 9; first to reach the 50- and 60-win marks; achieved the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs in their win at Denver Nuggets, which expanded their fifth lengthy win streak to seven games.
“A lot of teams lose and it’s tough to come back, just mentally it’s tough to come back,” Rivers said. “You go through the whole year and then you have to start training camp begins, and say we gotta do it again just to have an opportunity. They seem like they are chasing it harder this year than even last year.”
Rivers also has paid close attention to Booker’s ascension as a three-time All-Star by default because his former team Los Angeles Clippers used to face the Suns four times per season in the Pacific Division.
Rivers believes Booker was already an elite player among marquee names such as Sixers’ MVP candidate Joel Embiid, his teammate James Harden, LeBron James, and Paul. But Booker’s stature was overshadowed by the Suns being at the bottom of the standings for the first four years of his career.
“I think he had already made some of these leaps. The team was bad and nobody noticed,” Rivers said. Three years ago, Booker was a hell of a basketball player, one of the best players in the West.”
He admitted Booker’s obscurity was partially from his defensive strategy against the Suns, who were basically being a one-man band at that time.
“We noticed when we (Clippers) played him, but it was different. We had the ability to send two guys across half-court and go take the ball out of his hands because he didn’t have a lot of guys. Now, you can’t do that as easy anymore because he has a great supporting cast with him.
“But I just think what you didn’t know about him is when you got the right players around him, could he win, and he’s answered that question. The answer’s yes, clearly. Passes well, defends well, what I like about Book the most is just his inner toughness. He reminds me of a lot of guys. He looks for a chip to be pissed off at.
Rivers jokingly ended his diatribe about Booker by calling him “the greatest player in the world.”
The most recent motivational factor to ignite Booker was when the Nuggets announcer introduced Booker during the Suns starting lineup. Clippers guard Amir Coffey’s face was displayed on the Ball Arena’s scoreboard jumbotron instead of Booker’s first and last name.
After Booker lit up the Nuggets for his season-high 49 points, 10 assists, four rebounds and three steals in the 140-130 victory, he said he felt the pregame introduction flub was intentionally “disrespectful.”
Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas tweeted on March 22 Booker should be in the MVP conversation, to which Williams and Booker concurred.