Before Doc Rivers and his Clippers faced Kobe Bryant for the final time on Wednesday night, he recalled some amusing memories from his days facing the Mamba in the Finals while coaching the Boston Celtics.
Rivers provided an inside look into the final moments of Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals and how he was too afraid of Bryant to take his starters out, despite Boston having a 40-point lead in the last few minutes.
However, upon further review, there appear to be a few flaws in his account.
First of all, the Celtics were actually up 35, not 40, at the 6-minute mark as Rivers recalled. This is a very understandable mistake; it's been eight years since that night, and it would be impossible for Doc to retain every detail in the heat of the moment.
However, the key point of his story wasn't exactly correct either.
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According to Rivers, he was so intimidated by Bryant that he wasn't willing to sub out his big three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen until Lakers coach Phil Jackson relegated Bryant to the bench, even though Boston held an insurmountable lead.
That's not how it went down, though. Rivers actually took out the trio at the 4:01 mark; Bryant stayed in until there were two minutes and 20 seconds remaining. So, Rivers did indeed listen to assistant Tom Thibodeau's advice, opposed to what he remembers.
It's okay Doc, many of us have fuzzy memories. The moral of Rivers' tale remains: few, if any, players in the NBA struck fear into opposing coaches quite like the great Kobe Bryant.
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