For the 3rd time consecutively, the 76ers have succumbed to defeat in the semi-finals of the Eastern Conference. However, Doc Rivers, the 76ers’ coach, announced that he still wants to remain in his position for the upcoming season. James Harden, however, is yet to start thinking about how he will approach his off-season. As such, whether he stays on or becomes free is yet to be seen.
Doc Rivers Has Not Given Up On Claiming The Biggest Prize
In the semi-finals of the Eastern Conference, Doc Rivers’ 76ers were defeated by a scoreline of 88 points to 112 points in the seventh game on May 14th. Following the defeat, Rivers said that he still has two years left on his contract with the team so he intends to stay.
Doc Rivers was put in charge of the Philadelphia 76ers following the 2020 NBA winter bubble. Over the three consecutive seasons since then, he has improved his records. In his first season, the team recorded 49 wins. Then, it improved to 51 wins during the 2021-22 seasons. Finally, in the recent season, his team managed to secure 54 victories.
54 is also the most number of wins in a single season for the 76ers since 2001. In that season, the NBA MVP was awarded to Allen Iverson who had led the team to their final appearance in the finals of both the Eastern Conference and the NBA.
As such, the MVP Award for this year went to Joel Embiid. Unfortunately, though, for Doc Rivers and the 76ers, a similar playoff story as the one written by Iverson did not unfold. As for Harden’s relationship with Doc Rivers, Harden only termed it as being “OK”. On the other hand, Embiid was much more vocal with his praise for the manager.