PHILADELPHIA — Doc Rivers couldn’t stomach it, the unseemliness of it all. Three thousand miles to the west, the Lakers had waited about six-and-a-half seconds, following the end of a season of great expectations and lousy results, to leak that they were firing Frank Vogel. And it didn’t take much more time for Rivers’ name to surface, twice in the Los Angeles Times, as Vogel’s possible replacement. So here was Rivers on Tuesday after the 76ers had practiced, pulling up a courtside chair in Camden, N.J., and lamenting that he had been pulled into this story and pulled away from a task that he hasn’t come close to completing yet: coaching the Sixers to a championship.
“It just makes our job so much harder,” he said. “I think it’s so unfair. I thought the Frank Vogel thing was so unfair. We work just like you guys work. How would you like your jobs to be mentioned every day? I mean, even if it’s someone wanting to have you, it’s just not right. I hate it. There’s nothing I can do about it.”
So you’re not a candidate for that job, Doc?
