Rivers offers extended takes on Embiid-Claxton, Green-Sabonis incidents originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
NEW YORK — Wondering how Doc Rivers feels about instigation, retaliation, Joel Embiid’s Flagrant 1 foul and James Harden’s Flagrant 2 in the Sixers’ Game 3 win Thursday night over the Nets?
The Sixers’ head coach left little unsaid Friday afternoon. He also shared thoughts on seven-time All-Defensive selection Draymond Green’s one-game suspension for stomping on Domantas Sabonis during Game 2 of the Warriors-Kings first-round series.
“Listen, I’m going to say this — and I probably shouldn’t — I didn’t think Draymond should’ve gotten suspended and I think the league is setting up a very dangerous precedent right now,” Rivers said ahead of a team film session. “And this is not me campaigning, all right? And I’m dead serious. … If we’re going to start punishing the retaliators and not the instigators, then we’ve got a problem in this league.”
Rivers then shifted his attention to Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn’s frustration that Embiid was not ejected for kicking Nic Claxton as the Nets center hovered over him.
“I love Jacque,” Rivers said of Vaughn, who played for his 2002-03 Magic team, “but I can’t believe we have coaches campaigning for guys not to play. That’s just nuts to me, really. I’ve been a player and this is a players’ league, and I am 100 percent pro-player. I think players should play in games. We talk all year about fans not being happy about guys not playing, and now we’re taking guys out of the playoffs.
“I don’t believe in the past stuff either. They take away all your techs at the end of the season and you start over. Then you should start over on that stuff, too. (NBA executive vice president and head of basketball operations Joe Dumars) was saying with Draymond that the past — no. You should’ve done something then. This is now. But on top of that, Draymond Green stepped on (Sabonis’) chest because he was holding his foot. The instigator was holding his foot.”
Rivers recognizes that players don’t approach these incidents as they did during his career on the court, which spanned from 1983 through 1996 and and included a stint with Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason and the notoriously physical, ready-to-scrap Knicks.
“If I was at a park and you stood over me, we’re going to have a problem,” he continued. “Now, I didn’t grow up in the sticks and stones era. I grew up in the break the bones era, so it was a little different. Having said that, these guys know they can do it because they know, most likely, you can’t do anything (in response).
“I’m not picking on Claxton, but I don’t think, at a park, you’re standing over Joel. But when you’ve got the refs and everybody else there, you know nothing’s going to happen. So … what I’m concerned by is teams targeting the better players with instigation to get them thrown out, and the better player has to be above and can’t retaliate.
“I even go back to the (former Clippers owner Donald Sterling) thing. Sterling says that crap he says, and no one talked about Sterling anymore. They were waiting for us to respond. It shouldn’t be about how we responded; it should be about the person who commits the act. And so that’s the only thing I’m concerned with. The Joel thing will take care of itself. We’ve got to be better, too. We knew coming into the game that they were going to be more ‘physical,’ and we’ve got to handle that better as a group.”
Still, Rivers was far from finished.
Harden on Thursday night called his Flagrant 2 foul for off-ball, below-the-belt contact on Royce O’Neale an “unacceptable” decision. His coach was on the same page.
“James’ thing was a joke,” Rivers said. “I hadn’t seen it clear enough until late last night. … We’re watching film and the first thing with James I said is, ‘I’m still looking for the foul.’ The problem I have with James being thrown out is there were three officials and at least one or two guys in Secaucus, and that’s what they came up with? I just can’t understand that one.
“Joel’s could’ve went either way, now that I’ve watched it. I think he kicked him in the leg, actually, but I don’t know if that’s where he was targeting or not. But don’t stand over me. We have these unwritten rules in hockey where, if you do something … it’s almost like you’re allowed to do things in hockey. Well, we need to create some (unwritten rules) in our league. And one of them is you don’t straddle a guy and stand over him. You just don’t.
“Having said all that, let’s get back to basketball. We definitely have to be ready and handle that stuff better as a group. … Joel’s probably the main guy, but it’s the whole game, if you watched it. They were bumping him, they were hitting him, they were holding him, and it was allowed. And the the lesser guys never get that treatment. No one’s doing that to them.
“So we’re asking our stars to turn their heads a whole bunch more than they can at times. It’s a tough one for the league. I think they’re in a tough spot, but I do think if you’re going to suspend Draymond, you should suspend the other guy, too. You’ve created it, you go too. So if you want to do that, you’re putting yourself with the chance, if the guy does respond, that you may go too. I think we have to come up with something like that. I’m no longer on the rules committee, but that’s what I would go to.”