LAS VEGAS – Doc Rivers refrained from going on a full-on rant — half Baptist preacher, half exasperated coach — when talking about the simplicity of basketball, the simplicity of this NBA Cup.
“I’m not going to take the stand,” Rivers said Saturday. “But I just think, and they’re going to (blame this) generation, but I’m trying not to do that, but to accept the challenge. “We run away from challenges a lot.”
The Milwaukee Bucks coach wasn’t specifically talking about his team with “Us,” but rather about basketball culture as a whole. In many ways, gamers have become too cool to try, and something as physically and emotionally draining as exposing yourself is considered a black mark, a reason to ridicule gamers. Being a “try hard” is mocked in some spaces, perhaps in small but loud corners of the basketball discussion.
That’s why the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Cup Finals, which take place Tuesday night in Las Vegas, and maybe even why Warriors coach Steve Kerr was so dismayed by the ridiculous decision at the end of his team’s loss in the knockout round. to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
Both coaches weren’t afraid to put it out there, even though this is neither a playoff series nor a playoff game, and this can easily be forgotten at the All-Star break, when the regular season really begins to get back to normal. but it is very important. competition at stake in which one should invest.
“Let’s get our name out there,” Rivers said. “We are going to try to win it. If we don’t win it, we don’t win it, but… there’s nothing wrong with saying you want to win something, and if you win it, great, and you don’t, at least you tried. .”
That’s an attitude that permeates the playoffs and must-win games, but not on a Tuesday night in December when the playing field isn’t an eyesore and is just a regular old logo.
Yahoo Sports caught up with Rivers shortly after finishing his press conference Saturday night to explain those comments.
“I thought last year a lot of teams were like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know (about the Cup).’ This year I like it because more teams say: ‘We want to win it.’ If you lose, you think, ‘Well (it doesn’t matter).’ I don’t want that problem. “I want us to put our names on it.”
It sounds like a fear of failure, which seems to go against all the ways players are wired before reaching this level. But it exists.
“Yes, absolutely. “If you don’t say it and it doesn’t happen, no one says anything,” Rivers continued. “I just think about competition, you can’t surprise it, you have to accept it, embrace it and want it. And if you do that, you have a chance to win it.”
The teams that hold themselves to that standard are the ones that ultimately win, he said. When the word “responsibility” was mentioned, Rivers was excited.
“That’s the word,” Rivers said. “When you do that, responsibility comes into play, and that’s a good thing.”
That’s what the NBA needed for this four-day getaway. More than they needed Steph or LeBron (although finding LeBron seems harder than finding Waldo or Carmen Sandiego right now) because the NBA has no shortage of stars.
We know who the players are and in some cases they are overexposed simply because of the way modern media works. And of course the NBA has to have a contingency plan for the day LeBron retires or Steph leaves, maybe not too far from him, but that’s not why the NBA Cup exists. .
The star power here helps, but all four teams came to Las Vegas because they prioritized winning and have made cutthroat competitiveness part of their DNA. Rockets coach Ime Udoka gives no quarter or any effect, and that message is echoed by Dillon Brooks, Amen Thompson, Tari Eason and the entire roster. The Oklahoma City Thunder, even when they were losing a lot of games, were still a team that you couldn’t just show up for an easy night.
The Atlanta Hawks and Bucks played an entertaining and competitive 48 minutes in the first semifinal, and it was necessary for the NBA world to see. Giannis Antetokounmpo was diving for loose balls and felt the stakes were high.
The Bucks have needed that competitive fire for a while now, and after a year-long struggle with coaching changes and a rocky start to this season, they’re in much better shape now. Bobby Portis is one face of that fire.
“We accept constructive criticism, not only from our coaches, but we also monitor ourselves,” Portis told Yahoo Sports. “I think that’s the biggest change in our season, man, coming together and controlling ourselves. As a player, you know when you’re not doing well. You know when you’re not putting in that extra effort, like, ‘Hey, bro, come on.’ Hold each other responsible and play with joy.”
That’s Portis’ fuel, and he’s learned when to harness it and when to release it. Even as his skill set has evolved into his 10th year, he knows he’s in the league because of that extra thing he brings to the locker room.
He’s never been too cool to compete, nor too cool to care.
“It’s a little complicated, because I’ve always been a guy who wore my heart on my sleeve,” Portis said. “I never really let mistakes affect my effort. I’m always giving effort. You can be a giver or a taker, and I’m always giving to the team.”
This permeates and allows you to criticize your teammates when that effort is not reciprocated. Like when he called his team last year when Adrian Griffin was coach and asked for more.
He had the capital to do it and it took him a few years to realize he could do it. And while it was received as it was on the outside, it was clear that level of truth was needed in the locker room.
The NBA doesn’t really have a competition problem, but a perception problem. The perception that a tournament is needed to bring out more moves than usual, the perception that players don’t care as much as those of past eras.
Fighting calm is probably the easiest answer.