Josh Smith holds nothing back when talking about how Doc Rivers talked s**t about Paul George and has now been eliminated from the Playoffs.
Prior to the Playoffs commencing, Zach Lowe said that the Philadelphia 76ers are essentially a lock for the ECF unless something goes terribly wrong along the way. Well, the Sixers gave up a 2-1 lead to the 5th Seeded Atlanta Hawks and lost a Game 7 at home. A bevy of things went wrong for the Sixers in terms of injuries and dud performances from supposed stars but Doc Rivers isn’t exempt from the criticism either.
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He left the Los Angeles Clippers following the 2020 postseason collapse they suffered in the WCSF against the Denver Nuggets, making it the 7th year in a row that he would miss out on the Conference Finals with the Clips. Amidst his imminent departure, Doc Rivers subtly blamed Paul George for his lackluster performances.
PG-13 retaliated back by claiming he was used incorrectly and was relegated to a ‘Ray Allen-type’ role, a role he did not enjoy. After assistant head coach Tyronn Lue was promoted to bench boss, Rivers put out a controversial opinion of his stating that the Clippers wouldn’t really change up their schemes even with Lue at the helm.
Josh Smith goes ballistic on Doc Rivers in his most recent Instagram video.
Retired NBA veteran Josh Smith took to his Instagram following the Sixers’ Game 7 demise at the hands of the Hawks to go off on Doc Rivers and his comments on Paul George back in 2020. “Yeah Doc Rivers, you talked all that st about Paul George and how Tyronn Lue was going to have the same offense for him. Shut your bum a up.”
Smith also called out Rivers and his incapability to make fruitful in-game adjustments. Though he did make the change from Danny Green to Ben Simmons on who gets to defend Trae Young, this didn’t stop him from knocking shots from deep or finding the open man.
Josh Smith and Doc Rivers’s brief history together.
Josh Smith, in his prime, was one of the most athletic forwards in this league. Similar to Amare Stoudamire, Smith would elevate for incredibly powerful dunks and has collected a bevy of posters along the way. During the twilight of his career, he was on the Houston Rockets, a team that faced off against Doc’s Clippers in the 2015 WCSF.
It was here that Doc Rivers proceeded to blow a 3-1 lead to the Rockets, a team that featured Josh Smith who went off for 14 points on 4-5 shooting from the field, off the bench. Following the victory, he captioned a post on Instagram with “ByeDoc, 3-1 Bum”
Funnily enough, Josh Smith found himself on the Clippers two months after that fateful Game 6. However, after little to no production from his side, Doc Rivers, the then Clippers head coach and president of basketball operations, traded him away, back to the Rockets. So, it’s safe to say that Smith has beef with Doc Rivers.
