PHILADELPHIA — Doc Rivers' first time seeing the Philadelphia 76ers again comes as the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Hastily installed in the position midseason, Rivers is looking to help the Bucks recapture a championship. His failure to help the Sixers approach the promised lands looms over the franchise and the city as his Bucks play their lone regular-season game at the Wells Fargo Center this season.
In his three seasons as the head coach of the Sixers, Rivers posted a 154-82 record in the regular season (a winning percentage of 65.3) and bowed out in the second round of the playoffs each year. His best season, when Philly sat atop the Eastern Conference standings in 2020-21, ended with an upset loss to the Atlanta Hawks, blowing a 2-1 lead. His final season in Philly. concluded with a loss to the Boston Celtics after mounting a 3-2 lead.
“That's up to you. That's not up to me,” Rivers said when asked how his tenure as the 76ers' head coach should be remembered. He said that, amid all the things in and out of his control, he enjoyed his time, even if he still wished it featured more success.
“I think I was happy with it overall. I just wish we could have gone further. I wish I could've had a chance to have Joel healthy in the playoffs,” Rivers said. “But, you know, when I took this job here, I think we had gotten swept the year before in the first round. That regular season, the next year, we won the East, lost to Atlanta — which, I would love to have that one back as a group. But overall, Joel became an MVP. We established this team as a championship contender. That wasn't said the year before.”
Indeed, Rivers helped the 76ers bounce back from a sixth-place finish in the Eastern Conference the prior season. But while that iteration of the team was a bust, the year before had seen Philly take the eventual champion Toronto Raptors to the very end of Game 7. Far from taking a hopeful contender to legitimate contender status, Rivers had simply returned Philly to its status quo being one step behind the elite teams of the conference instead of two.
While Embiid's production did level up under Rivers — and did so again under new head coach Nick Nurse — it wasn’t enough for Rivers to steer the 76ers past the second round, which continues to haunt the Embiid-era Sixers. The loss to the Hawks marks one of the greatest postseason coaching failures in recent memory, spoiling a golden opportunity for Embiid and the Sixers to reach their first conference finals since 2001.
Doc Rivers speaks about Sixers' 2023 playoff loss to Celtics
Losing to the Celtics was much more understandable, though not any less infuriating given how close the 76ers came. Rivers asked those in attendance at his pregame press conference to raise their hands if they had picked Philly to win that series. “That's the point,” he said amid only a handful of raised hands.
When asked specifically about the final two games of the series, Rivers re-asserted the notion that the 76ers were the underdogs. “Honestly, I haven't thought about it much since. I mean, maybe they were better. Could that be a possibility? That's probably why you picked them, right? So that's one reason,” he said.
Rivers added that Game 6 in Philadelphia, when the Sixers were ahead with under four and a half minutes remaining, was the one that got away. He said that Embiid didn’t get the ball enough even though he had the chance to. The superstar big man continued to vouch for Rivers, though he was fired as head coach two days after the series defeat.
Tyrese Maxey said that he was looking forward to seeing Rivers, even though it takes a backseat to the actual game he was looking to win. His growth into an All-Star has made Rivers proud.
“I mean, I thought he was close last year to making the All-Star team and, you know, couldn't happen to a better person,” Rivers said. “I mean player, obviously, but you don't get a lot of Tyrese Maxeys in your coaching career — [a] guy that just loves playing happy, will play with anyone.”
Rivers said that this season is a result of Maxey having more control over the ball, which he didn’t have with James Harden leading the offense last season. Now the lead guard after Harden had a falling out with the 76ers, Maxey has improved. The 76ers are looking to stay afloat with Joel Embiid out but, at full strength, looked better-quipped to make that deep playoff trek that eludes them.
With his 76ers tenure behind him, Rivers is now looking to get the most out of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and the Bucks. Being back in a city that feels scorned for the lack of high-level success his tenure featured doesn’t play into his mindset all that much.
“I feel great,” Rivers said about returning to Philly. “Listen, I still have a lot of friends here, a lot of the players I still talk to, text back and forth with some of 'em a lot. Joined a great golf club and I have great restaurants that I go to. So, I felt I was looking forward to coming back, not just for the basketball part, but just to go to my places.”
Rivers played coy when asked what type of reception he's going to get from fans. He said that he hasn’t lost any sleep over it and that he isn’t sure what type of reactions coaches elicit from the crowd, though he did acknowledge that he and the situation that faced him is “different.” The boo birds are expected to swoop down in droves when the starting lineups are announced before the game.
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