“When I got swept it ain’t got nothing to do with the coach, it was all me, cause’ I’m driving the bus” Shaquille O’Neal defends Doc Rivers with increasing perception of being a choker


“When I got swept it ain’t got nothing to do with the coach, it was all me, cause’ I’m driving the bus” Shaquille O’Neal defends Doc Rivers with increasing perception of being a choker

Shaquille O'Neal and Doc Rivers

Shaquille O’Neal has his stance clear on who he thinks is responsible for the ongoing downfall of the Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs against the Toronto Raptors, where the former went from 3-0 to now 3-2, with just one loss away from equalising the wins of both the teams in the series, making it even tougher to get into the next round of the playoffs. The entire world is busy in finding patterns to hold someone or the other responsible for this state of the 76ers, and the very first name that pops into the head of most of these people is that of Coach Doc Rivers, and Shaq is strongly against that.

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Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille O’Neal

With what was a detailed argument between the Inside Guys regarding if the coaches have any role to play or are responsible for things, and what is the importance of the head coach to a team, Shaquille O’Neal found himself to be the only panellist defending Coach Doc Rivers against Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and even Earnie Johnson who were all of the view that coaches were the only ones responsible if the teams went on losing streaks, and they just didn’t make statements, but had patterns and stats to back their claims up.

Doc Rivers
Doc Rivers

Let us now take a closer look at this conversation between the Inside Guys who went face to face against each other, with some favouring Doc Rivers, and the others going against him.

Shaquille O’Neal stands up for coach Doc Rivers as people blame him for teams going on losing streaks

Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille O’Neal

Rivers, the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers came under fire, yet again after his team now stand 3-2 against the Toronto Raptors after being ahead 3-0 with just 1 more win in order to qualify to the next round in the playoffs. The 76ers seem to be blowing away their lead as they are now on a two-match losing streak despite having an” invincible” squad and a record comfortable enough to easily take them to the next round. The Pascal Siakam led Toronto Raptors have given the 76ers problems which they never imagined, but now, the media and the internet seem to be identifying a pattern.

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Coach Doc Rivers has been held accountable for his team blowing away the 3-2 lead, and the reason for that has been the fact that teams under coach Rivers have previously done this, time and time again. Be it 76ers or the Heat or any other team, Coach Rivers has seen teams blowing away massive leads and losing the important games.

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Shaquille O’Neal was the only one who felt that Coach Rivers was deliberately being thrown under the bus in order to not hold the squad accountable for their loss. Chuck and Kenny argued that the coaches had a really important role to play in the teams therefore they should be held accountable for the team’s losing streaks.

The entire discussion

Shaq argued that if the teams went on losing streaks of 3-4 matches while being up 3-0 they should be the ones responsible and not their coaches who couldn’t play for them. Chuck and Kenny again laid out the points that such instances had happened to Doc Rivers in various teams and not just the 76ers, due to which it should be understood that the only common point between various teams losing and blowing away leads was Doc Rivers and therefore he should be held accountable.

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76ers vs Raptors game 5

This debate wont end till the time the 76ers and coach Rivers prove the world wrong. Till the time, let us take a look at the reactions people on twitter had to this argument between the Inside Guys.

Twitter Reacts to the Shaquille O’Neal defending Doc Rivers against the Inside Guys

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