Doc Rivers, now a Sixer, returns ‘home’ in triumph
Doc Rivers still has a place in L.A., and there are still a lot of friendly faces working in and around Staples Center, his workplace for the previous seven seasons. So when he arrived at the arena Thursday night with his Philadelphia 76ers to play the Lakers, it was a homecoming.
“I made a lot of friends there,” he said. “I made very few enemies, know what I mean? Hopefully none.
“Walking in the door, it’s the same people. I don’t know if people understand that when you come to Staples Center, the same workers work both games. So for me ... saying hi to all of them walking in was fantastic.”
There will be more greetings tonight, and maybe some emotional responses from the group he left behind, when the Sixers show up to play the Clippers. Rivers will greet Ty Lue, his assistant last year in L.A. (and previously with Boston). He’ll see most of the
players he coached last year — Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Ivica Zubac and others — as well as another with whom he has previous history, Rajon Rondo, acquired by the Clippers at the trade deadline Thursday.
They’re the competition, not the enemy. Doc is unique among coaches in that, pre-COVID, he would always shake the hand of the opposing coach at the end of the game, win or lose. Always.
The guess is he’ll have a warm hello tonight for George, even after the player threw a little shade his way before the season began when asked about last year’s playoffs and specifically his usage. The greetings might be more muted in a pandemic, but the attitude doesn’t change.
Neither does Rivers’ outspokenness, and Dwight Howard can attest to that.
The Sixers center spent the start of Thursday night’s game agitating the Lakers’ Montrezl Harrell to the point that Howard got himself ejected at the end of the first quarter. That left the Sixers short of big men, with Joel Embiid still hurt and Tony Bradley traded earlier in the day, and it had Rivers fuming.
“Clowns,” he snorted during TNT’s in-game interview. “You got guys joking around. It’s ridiculous on both parts . ... Mike (Scott, the only remaining semibig) has two fouls, and I think our next biggest guy is me.”
Then, after the game, he called it a “selfish play” on Howard’s part. But Dwight was probably prepared for that.
During a Zoom interview after the Sixers’ shootaround Thursday morning, Howard talked about how one of the things he liked about Rivers was his willingness to speak his piece.
“He’s a players’ coach, (but) he’s one of those coaches who’s going to hold you accountable, and I really enjoy that,” Howard said. “He’s not going to hold his tongue for no one. He’s gonna speak his mind, he’s gonna let you know what he expects from you every night, he’s going to get on your case. He’s going to do all the things that you want from a coach.
“I’m so happy to have him as a coach ... I’ll do anything. I’ll run through a wall for him. I’ll be the best I could be for him and for our team and for this city. He doesn’t realize how much energy he gives me by just being who he is, just the motivation and how he speaks to our team.”
Even with a big man deficit, the Sixers still beat the Lakers on Thursday night, a 109-101 decision in which they led by 18 after three quarters. Philly is 32-13, best in the East and trailing only Utah in the league’s overall standings, and is 6-1 since Embiid was sidelined with a bone bruise in his left knee. ExClipper Tobias Harris has averaged 23.2 points and 7.4 rebounds in those seven games to help carry the load.
The Sixers acted relatively conservatively at Thursday’s trade deadline, acquiring veteran guard George Hill from Oklahoma City and young forward Ignas Brazdeikis from the Knicks in a three-way deal. It’s not the type of eyepopping moves that would give Philly a decided edge in the East, but as Rivers noted, “In the West, for sure, you pretty much know who the favorites are. I don’t think that’s changed. In the East, I think it goes deeper. There’s a lot of good teams that have a chance.”
Who knows? If the Sixers do their part, and either the Lakers or the Clippers do theirs, Rivers might be bringing his team back to L.A. in early July for the NBA Finals.
“The city hasn’t changed,” he said. “My house is the same. I go in (to Staples) the same way. I just don’t go in the same door.”
Still, he noted there’s a strangeness that will continue until significant numbers of fans, and the staff to accommodate them, can come back.
“A lot of the guys that park the cars and things like that aren’t working right now,” he said. “They only have one guy back there, due to COVID. So even though we’re playing the games, a lot of the people who work the arenas and who are involved in everyday operations don’t have a job right now or are laid off.
“That hits home when you come back somewhere that you’re used to seeing a lot of people. That was the first thing I actually noticed walking into this building.”
It’s one more reason to root hard for the return of normalcy.