“Champions Don’t Speak Like That!”: Stephen A. Smith Calls Out Doc Rivers for His ‘Credit for Getting the Three Wins’ Statement

The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night to pick up their 40th win of the season. The victory helped keep them just ahead of the Detroit Pistons for the 5-seed in the East, but it was noteworthy for another reason, as it also moved head coach Doc Rivers closer to tying seventh on the all-time wins list with the Zen Master himself, Phil Jackson. He is now one game behind with 1,154. He had the chance to match Jackson’s 1,155 against the Phoenix Suns on Monday but lost 108-106.

Rivers sat down with Marc J. Spears recently to talk about that milestone and to look back on the highs and lows of his coaching career. Rather than being a celebration though, his comments have made him the butt of jokes among those who follow the NBA.

Rivers won an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008, but he’s been taken to task for the way in which he described some of his past failures, especially his three blown 3-1 leads. He’s the only NBA coach with more than one, and with a 6-10 record in Game 7s, including in each of his last five, nobody has lost more series-deciding games. In his interview with Spears, he attempted to subvert the narrative that his teams lost due to poor coaching.

“No one tells a real story. And I’m fine with that. It’s unfair in some ways. I don’t get enough credit for getting the three wins. I get credit for losing.” Rivers also said that he’s proud that his teams never got swept in the playoffs, which is something that most coaches can’t say. He added, “My teams achieve. A lot of them overachieve, and I’m very proud of that.”

Stephen A. Smith went on First Take today to dunk on Rivers for his remarks. He held his head in his hands in performative exasperation as Rivers’ comments were read to him. “Why are you doing this, Doc Rivers?” he asked after admitting he felt it was a “disaster” in his personal opinion after recommending to him to “not say it publicly.” 

“Champions don’t speak like that,” he continued as he shared a laugh with Carlos Boozer and Shannon Sharpe.

Stephen A. Smith is not a fan of how Doc Rivers is handling his business

I feel like I’m zagging on this one, but the whole thing felt really gross, and the perfect encapsulation of why athletes and coaches don’t like to talk to the media anymore. Rivers’ interview with Spears was for Andscape, the sports and pop culture website owned by ESPN, Stephen A.’s employer, to celebrate black identity and achievement.

For Stephen A., a fellow black man and self-professed friend of Rivers, to use his candid words to throw him under the bus just feels like a “gotcha” moment. Stephen A. is always happy to grab the low-hanging fruit, but in this case, his argument that “champions don’t speak like that” makes no sense.

Doc Rivers is a champion. He does speak like that. He owns his failures and his successes. Losing three 3-1 leads isn’t a good thing, but Rivers is right that a lot of coaches would love to be in that position. Is Steve Kerr a bad coach because his Warriors lost a 3-1 lead to the Cavs?

There are always extenuating circumstances. For Kerr, it was Draymond Green getting suspended for a game for kicking LeBron James. For Rivers, it was the fact that one of his teams was without its best player in Grant Hill. Another was relying on a broken-down Chris Paul. These aren’t excuses, they’re reality. Somebody has to win, and somebody has to lose.

Rivers has done a lot of winning, and last I checked, he has one more ring than Stephen A. has. When you look at the totality of his career, it’s a great success, regardless of what he does with the rest of it.

Over time, coaches and athletes have become more and more guarded about what they say for this precise reason, that they don’t want to open themselves up to bad faith criticism. That’s what this is. It’s easy for Stephen A. to sit in the studio and trash anyone he wants, and he’s paid handsomely to do it. That doesn’t mean it’s right.