Doc Rivers spent seven seasons in Los Angeles as the coach of the Clippers, presiding over one of the most exciting teams in the league during his run.
The Clippers were consistently one of the top three teams in the Western Conference, dubbed with the nickname “Lob City” thanks in large part to the alley oops thrown to Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan in the team’s wide open fast break offense.
Led by one of the top point guards in the history of the game in Chris Paul and armed by a number of sharpshooting role players, the expectation was always that the Clippers would compete for championships. The problem is that the team’s postseason success never matched the regular season proficiency, as the Clippers never made a conference finals appearance in the seven seasons that Rivers was in L.A.
Why was this the case? It’s an easy answer for Rivers now, looking back at the tenure.
“I’m not trying to take anything away from that [Clippers] team, but that team was never going to win when you look back at it,” Rivers told ESPN’s Malika Andrews on the NBA Today on Thursday. “We just didn’t get along well enough as a group, and you can’t win without cooperation. That’s the only way you can win.”
J.J. Redick, one of the key players on those Clippers teams, tweeted out a reaction in clear disagreement to the Rivers comments.
“This is what dreams are made of,” Redick said.
Rivers has won one title as a coach with the 2008 Celtics, but has not been able to match that success since then in his stints with the Clippers and thus far in Philadelphia as the coach of the 76ers.
