You read the headline correctly. That is indeed a quote from the former head coach of the Sixers.
The sentence came from a story by Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
Here's the full passage:
"But I've never come up short, in my opinion," Rivers said. "Come up short? What does that mean? Like, we didn't win a title? I go back to Philly. I took that job after we lost in the first round 4-0 (to the Celtics in 2020 under Brett Brown). The next year, we win the East in the regular season. All right. We are one game away from the Eastern finals.'"
First thing's first.
You could maybe perhaps hear his case because he frames it as "in my opinion". That is ordinarily a fair qualifier because opinions are not commonly thought of as objective truths. Rivers' view of "coming up short" could be entirely different than that of most other people.
The trouble is this: Rivers is quoted as saying 'land the plane' in the title of the story. Here's the context of the full phrase in the story:
"I'm literally excited about the team," Rivers told The Athletic in an exclusive conversation at the team's training camp in Irvine, Calif. "I am so f-- engaged. I think we got the right group, I just do. And you know, again, as Bill Belichick said, we're either going to land this f-- plane or we're going to have a crash landing."
So, land the plane or crash-landing it. What could that mean? The most obvious application is winning a championship or not winning a championship.
So, you can't define the objective as "landing the plane" and then say you've never crash-landed before.
Here's a recap of Rivers' resume.
- 273-312 regular-season coaching record over eight seasons (fired in the middle of one), with four first-round exits and three missed playoffs altogether, before winning a title with the 66-16 Boston Celtics in 2008
- Won at least 50 games in each of the next three seasons, with one loss in the Finals and two dismissals in the second round
- A Conference Finals and first-round exit in his final two seasons, respectively, with Boston
- Takes over the Los Angeles Clippers for the "Lob City" era
- Chris Paul has arguably the worst sequence of his playoff career in a Game 5 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Clippers eliminated in Game 6 of the Conference semifinals at home
- Clippers blow a 3-1 series lead to the Houston Rockets in the second round, back to Cancun
- Back-to-back first-round departures, including a Game 7 loss at home to the Utah Jazz in the second season of the back-to-back
- Two-year lull in which the Clippers were irrelevant
- Clippers get Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, blow a 3-1 series lead to the Denver Nuggets in the Orlando bubble during the COVID-19 pandemic, out in the second round
- Fired, goes to Philly for the ousted Brett Brown
- Sixers get the one seed in the East, blow a 28-point lead in Game 5 to the Atlanta Hawks, lose Game 7 of the Conference semifinals at home
- Lose in second round again
- Blow a 3-2 series lead with a Game 6 at home to the Celtics, blown out in Game 7 in Boston
- Replaces Adrian Griffin in Milwaukee halfway through the season, Bucks lose to Indiana in the first round
Now, there is a ton of context that cannot be ignored here.
There are many instances of his players simply wetting the bed in the biggest moments; see the aforementioned Chris Paul sequence, Leonard and George combining to shoot 10-for-38 in Game 7; Ben Simmons actively melting down over the course of the Hawks series; numerous bad plays from Joel Embiid and De'Anthony Melton missing a handful of open threes against Boston in the fourth quarter of Game 6.
There are also numerous examples of his teams suffering injuries at the worst possible times. The most prominent example of that would be his 2015-16 Clippers team that finished second in the Pacific division and then lost to the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round. And, of course, Embiid tore his meniscus, broke his orbital bone, suffered a concussion and sprained his knee, all in consecutive postseasons. The Bucks were basically skeletal remains of themselves by the end of that Pacers series last season.
But, there's a notable history of miserable collapses. He has overseen three series losses after leading three games to one. The first Sixers team he coached led by 18 points in the second quarter of Game 4 against the Hawks and lost. You could argue that series, because the team had sizable leads in back-to-back games, was essentially another blown 3-1 lead.
Beyond that, there are examples of coaching malpractice. For example, letting Danny Green take first assignment on Trae Young in Game 1 against the Hawks. The Sixers dug a massive hole in the first half of that game and nearly came all the way back to win. He also deployed lineups featuring both Simmons and Dwight Howard throughout that series, two non-threats on offense who did not command any respect from defenses. Rivers didn't adjust when it was abundantly clear that Kevin Huerter was cooking Seth Curry in Game 7 of that series. That's a long paragraph without even mentioning that he let the ghost of DeAndre Jordan play meaningful playoff minutes in the second round the very next season.
There's probably something to be said about the roster construction of that Sixers team that lost to the Hawks. They were not equipped to defend ancillary players with the skill sets that Huerter, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari have. Green missing most of that series, even in his advanced age, really mattered for Philadelphia.
But, there's context that Rivers is missing, too.
He's correct about that 2019-20 Sixers team. They got swept in the first round in the bubble. But, they didn't have Simmons, who was having the best season of his career, for those playoffs. That team probably doesn't even play the Celtics in the first round if both Simmons and Embiid don't miss significant time with various ailments during the regular season.
Make no mistake, that team was awkward and clunky. But, they were on their way to an excellent regular season when injuries derailed them. The same thing happened in the playoffs. It wasn't a categorical underachievement that Rivers resurrected, like he suggests. It was a team whose coach had been on the hot seat for two years and was shown the door despite his group being short-handed.
On top of that, it's impossible to properly compare that squad to the first Sixers team Rivers coached because the roster was reshaped to improve shooting and spacing after the new pilot was hired. Not apples to apples.
So no, there's no downplaying previous failures when the standard you set is landing or crash-landing.
Speaking of head-scratchers, Rivers isn't the only member of that 2008 Celtics title team to say something questionable this week:
Kevin Garnett goes off after hearing Joel Embiid’s decision to sit out of back-to-backs:
“82 games, man, this is what the fu***** job calls for.”
(via @allthesmokeprod) pic.twitter.com/kwZkLypYfu
Kevin Garnett played in 82 games four times in his 20-year career. Maybe this is a wild take, but advances in medical science aren't a bad thing. Would love to know how many former professional athletes wish they knew back then what they know now.
