Doc Rivers is in a position that a lot of coaches would love to be in during the regular season. Rivers doesn’t just have one candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, he has top-tier defenders in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons on his team. This prompted ESPN’s “The Jump” to put him in the hot-seat and ask him to choose between his two stars.
Although “The Jump” tried to catch him in a trap, Rivers was able to ease out of this tough space because Joel Embiid is also in the MVP race. As a result, he claimed that he would vote for Embiid for MVP while giving Ben Simmons the DPOY award.
“Ben is a lock to me. He just—he guards every position,” Rivers said per ESPN. “And he makes such a difference. And not just at the rim. It’s everywhere. He literally at times swallows players. And I’ve not seen that.”
Like any good coach, Rivers is supposed to oversell his players. This doesn’t just build morale, it shows his trust in his team leaders. But, Coach Doc also created one of this week’s biggest “Ayoooo!” moments with the way he phrased his response.
You can check out some responses below.
