Doc Rivers loves to defend his players, and most of the time, there’s nothing wrong with that. When the topic turned to DeAndre Jordan, though, the Los Angeles Clippers coach went a bit too far.
It all started in early March, when Rivers gave his big man a resounding endorsement, claiming he’s “clearly” the defensive player of the year. Rivers took that a step further a week later, telling reporters that he doesn’t “think there’s a No. 2” for the award.
Naturally, some people who don’t coach the Clippers disagreed with Rivers, including ESPN Insider Tom Haberstroh, who recently posted an article making a very detailed, statistics-driven case for why Jordan isn’t the best defensive player in the league. Haberstroh mentioned Rivers in his story, noting that the coach’s opinion “screams confirmation bias.”
Naturally, Rivers responded, and he wasn’t too pleased, per Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times.
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That’s a strong take, Doc, but there’s a problem. Haberstroh did mention rebounding; in fact, there’s an entire section of his piece subtitled, “Rebounding isn’t everything.”
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So why the discrepancy?
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Ah. So Rivers publicly called out a reporter for an article he didn’t read. Nice.
For the record, Jordan admitted he didn’t read Haberstoh’s article either, but we like his reasoning better.
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Thumbnail photo via Kelvin Kuo/USA TODAY Sports Images
