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Sixers Hire Doc Rivers As Head Coach

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  • Sixers Hire Doc Rivers As Head Coach

    https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...ch-sources-say

    Doc Rivers is out as head coach of the LA Clippers following a season that fell well short of championship expectations after the team landed All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George last summer.

    Against the Denver Nuggets, the Clippers squandered a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference semifinals, surrendering double-digit leads of 16, 19 and 12 in the last three games of the series as the franchise's Western Conference finals drought reached 50 years.

    Rivers is the only coach in NBA history to lose a 3-1 lead in three playoff series, having done so with the Clippers in the 2015 West semis against the Houston Rockets and with the Orlando Magic in the first round against the Detroit Pistons in 2003.

  • #2
    https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...adelphia-76ers

    After a rapid courtship and negotiation, Doc Rivers has reached agreement on a five-year deal to become the next coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.

    Rivers' deal with the Sixers comes only three days after he parted with the LA Clippers. It also means he will return to the Atlantic Division, where he will be a principal rival of the Boston Celtics, with whom Rivers won an NBA title in 2008 as coach.

    Sixers general manager Elton Brand on Monday reached out to Rivers and his agent, Lonnie Cooper, to gauge his interest in the Sixers job. Rivers soon was on a flight to Philadelphia, where meetings Wednesday with Brand and owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer had the sides moving quickly toward negotiating a multiyear deal.

    Rivers takes over a Sixers team that lost in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs and continues to consider changes to a roster that Brand remains determined to construct around All-Stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.

    There is hope that a reunion with Rivers can be impactful in forward Tobias Harris maximizing his play with the Sixers. Before the Clippers traded Harris to the Sixers in February 2019, Harris was having his best NBA season under Rivers -- averaging 20.9 points on 50% shooting from the field and 43% from the 3-point line.

    Rivers, 58, had two years left on his Clippers contract, sources said, so he remains owed a significant sum of money, although typically there are offset agreements on the payout put into place should a coach be hired in a new job.

    In Rivers' seven seasons at the helm, the Clippers went 356-208, winning 63.1% of their regular-season games -- the fifth-best record in the NBA and the best by any team without a conference finals appearance.

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