Doc Rivers named new head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers

Doc Rivers (Google Images)

Doc Rivers was not without a job for long. On Thursday, he became the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, just three days after being fired as the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers according to Dan Gelston of the Associated Press.

The 76ers are now Rivers’s fourth National Basketball Association team he has coached. He has previously coached the Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics in addition to the Clippers. Rivers, who is a native of Chicago, Illinois, has a career record of 943 wins and 681 losses in 1624 games.

In 2019-20, Rivers posted a record of 49 wins and 23 losses in 72 regular season games. However, the Clippers were knocked out of the playoffs earlier than anticipated. In the Western Conference semifinals, the Clippers had a three games to one series lead on the Denver Nuggets, only to lose the series four games to three.

The fact that Rivers is now with the 76ers could be considered a surprise. There were high expectations that Mike D’Antoni would get the Philadelphia job after leaving the Houston Rockets. However 76ers management decided to go with a coach who has won the NBA Finals in his career (2008 with the Boston Celtics), and at 58 years of age, is 11 years younger than D’Antoni.

Rivers meanwhile takes over from Australian national men’s team coach Brett Brown, who had been the head coach in Philadelphia the last seven seasons. In 2019-20, Philadelphia had a record of 43 wins and 30 losses, but were swept in the first round of the NBA playoffs by the Celtics. Now in Philadelphia, Rivers will need to get offense from star center Joel Embiid, who was at times inconsistent in 2019-20.

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