Doc Rivers’ tenure with the Philadelphia 76ers wasn’t much of a success.
The team went from Brett Brown to Rivers, hoping to make it further in the playoffs, yet they continued to fail.
Rivers blew a 3-2 lead against the Boston Celtics and missed several opportunities to close out the series to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in over two decades.
However, looking back to his days in the City of Brotherly Love, Rivers claimed that he was actually quite satisfied with them (via Sam Di Giovanni and ClutchPoints).
“I’m happy with it overall. I just wish we could’ve gone further… We established this team as a championship contender. That wasn’t said the year before,” Rivers said.
“I’m happy with it overall. I just wish we could’ve gone further… We established this team as a championship contender. That wasn’t said the year before.”
Doc Rivers reflects on his time with the Sixers 🗣️
(via @BySamDiGiovanni) pic.twitter.com/iiAZCiqaFt
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 25, 2024
The former Boston Celtics coach acknowledged that they could have gone deeper in the playoffs, but he credited himself for putting together a championship-caliber team, which wasn’t the case before his arrival.
Of course, that’s not entirely true, as Brown’s team was one lucky bounce away from taking the Toronto Raptors to overtime and perhaps making it to the ECF as well.
Many Sixers fans don’t look back to Rivers’ tenure with the team as a positive one, and most NBA fans were surprised to see him getting another chance to coach so shortly after being dismissed.
Now, Rivers could be looking at his final chance as a coach in the league, and given how much talent he has on this team, it would be hard to justify him not going deep in the playoffs or winning a championship with the Milwaukee Bucks.
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