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Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers spoke about his legacy, and the reputation that he has from being the only coach to blow multiple 3-1 leads in NBA Playoffs series.
“Well, the No. 1 thing is that people don’t realize is that winning’s hard,” Doc Rivers said, via David Aldridge of The Athletic. “And it’s rare. It’s only one (champion) a year. So, this league is really old, but it’s only like 57 times it’s happened. When you think about it. I love what I do. I think I’ve had teams that overachieved more than underachieved. I think I’ve had two losing seasons. Those two were in Boston, when we were trying — I don’t want to say ‘trying’ — to lose. But only two losing seasons. But I’ve had a lot of success.”
Rivers also went through each instance of his teams blowing 3-1 leads, explaining why each one happened.
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“And I’ve had some failure,” Rivers said, via Aldridge. “You know, 3-1 leads. But people don’t realize, I always own that. Three-one. … we were the eight seed (in Orlando, in 2003), playing the one seed (Detroit). Chris Paul ruptures, hurts his hamstring in the San Antonio series (in 2015) and is running around on one leg against Houston. And the bubble (in 2020) was a disaster for our team, more than any other team. We voted not to go. We voted to leave — we were the only team that voted to leave. Lou Williams missed 40 days. Patrick Beverley missed 35 days. … you’ve still got to own what you own. But if I own that, I get to own all the victories and the other stuff too. And that’s way more.”
It is worth noting that the Los Angeles Lakers, the team that won the NBA championship that season, also voted to leave the bubble.
The 76ers are in the second round of the NBA Playoffs, possibly matching up with the Boston Celtics. Philadelphia fans do not care about Rivers' explanation for his past blunders, they want the team to win now.
