Doc Rivers is one NBA coach everyone loves to hate, but in his view, his coaching career has been a success.
His track record is a little questionable, most NBA fans will tell you.
Especially when you consider hes blown three 3-1 leads in the postseason and how his teams have failed to close out postseason series during his 25 seasons as head coach.
But, coming up short is not in his vocabulary.
But Ive never come up short, in my opinion, Rivers told The Athletic. Come up short? What does that mean? Like, we didnt win a title? I go back in Philly. I took that job after we lost in the first round 4-0 (to the Celtics in 2020 under Brett Brown). The next year, we win the East in the regular season. All right. We are one game away from the Eastern finals.
So theres times where Im like were being evaluated on a different standard. And the great news is Ive created that standard. So for me, thats good. But then when the narrative comes that you cant do it, thats bulls. Because Ive done it and I can do it. Its just hard to do it. Its just hard. So Ive always looked at it that way.
Does the narrative surrounding Doc bother him though?
Listen, Im eighth in wins. Im fourth in playoff wins, Rivers said. My dad used to say something, If somebody said something you would never listen to, why would you ever pay attention to it? You know what I mean?
My numbers dont lie. Ive coached for 25 years and Ive had two losing seasons. And the two losing seasons, we were trying to f lose, yeah. So Ive made the playoffs whatever, I dont even know 21 out of 25 years. Its almost like Deion Sanders said in that interview. Theres nothing you can say or do thats going to take away from what Ive done, and Ill never allow that.
Having said that, I want to do more. And to do more, you have to put yourself in situations where youre going to be criticized if you dont do it. And Im fine with that.
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