Doc Rivers’ latest NBA coaching tenure came to an end Tuesday, as the Philadelphia 76ers parted ways with the 61-year-old following their Eastern Conference semifinals elimination at the hands of the Boston Celtics.
The firing of Rivers brought out plenty of critics, as his history of playoff blunders influenced a litany of shots from his former players.
Rasheed Wallace, who played under Rivers with the Celtics for the 2009-2010 season, is just the latest.
“You gotta get somebody in there that the players respect,” Wallace said of Rivers, as transcribed by Brian Robb of MassLive. “He doesn’t make adjustments. That’s just from being in the locker room with him for that one season. That seems to always be his biggest knock if his team is up, you don’t have to coach (expletive) then. When you are in the trenches, and you are going against another team and another good coach, you’ve gotta be more than a locker room manager.
“He depends more on the players to make those adjustments, but coach you have to come in there and make adjustments as well especially when what you’re trying hasn’t worked.”
The criticism of Rivers is unlike anything normally seen in sports. He’s had great success in the NBA regular season, winning the ninth-most games of any coach in league history across tenures with the Orlando Magic (1999-2003), Celtics (2004-2013), Los Angeles Clippers (2013-2020) and 76ers (2020-2023). He’s also had a tremendous amount of failure in the postseason, blowing 11 leads in 19 playoff appearances.
So yes, there are plenty of things to slander Rivers about, and it has been a feeding frenzy on the day of his termination.
