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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: WARRIORS v CLIPPERSApril 27, 2014Doc RiversOAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Game Four Q. Coach, as of this morning, how would you judge the psyche of your players, after the‑‑ COACH RIVERS: I really have no idea. I mean, honestly, just being honest, I don't know. You know, from a coaching standpoint, you're concerned. They've been pulled in a million directions over the last 24 hours, and so that's a fact. Q. What did you take out of President Obama's comments on the situation? COACH RIVERS: You know, I guess you can take a lot of things out of any comments. And the fact that he was, what, in Malaysia, said enough to me that he was speaking of that. That was the first question, I think. And I think what he was saying is you ignore it and do your job. But I don't know. Q. (Off microphone)? COACH RIVERS: Yeah, I mean, without names, yeah. Yeah, I've heard from a lot of people, obviously. And a lot of supportive people. They've been great. So, yeah, I've heard from some good people, with a lot of insight on all of this. I'm a basketball coach. And I'm trying to handle this, and really more for your team and your players. That's my concern. That's my job. And I feel like we let them down. I'm part of this organization. And so my job is to just get them up and get them ready. And I would say the last 24 hours have been completely on that. Q. At this point, what would you like to see the league do at this point? COACH RIVERS: I don't know. Honestly I haven't even thought about it. The league is going to do to do what they need to do. I have complete trust in Adam. And Kevin Johnson, you know, has taken the Players Association and done what he needs to do. We had a good laugh yesterday. I think this is the first time Kevin Johnson and I have spoken since we had our fight back in Phoenix, so it's amazing what will bring people together. So at least there was some levity in that. But I do think the right people are involved. Q. What would you like to see the NBA do? COACH RIVERS: I don't know. Like I said, let the things happen and we'll find out. I don't want to say or get involved in that yet. Q. (Off microphone)? COACH RIVERS: Of course not. But I've done my job. You lock yourself in the room and you turn your phones off and you watch all the film and you do all the preparation. So the basketball preparation is done for sure, and I don't think any of this has taken me away from that. The mental preparation, on the other hand, I just‑‑ honestly, I don't know. Because, listen, as much as this is basketball, this is life. And our guys, they have family. They have friends. And they have cell phones. And I can't imagine how much they've been pulled on and talked to and what you should do and what you shouldn't do and what you should say. And that's abnormal to a normal playoff game. Usually they'll be telling you: You should get more shots. Doc's a terrible coach. He's not playing you enough. Things like that. And now we're talking about other stuff. Q. Have you spoken to Donald Sterling yet? And, secondly, how much are you being pulled around, too? COACH RIVERS: I am, too. But I'm fine with that. I just look at that as part of my job. And it's just what you have to do. It could be something else. Obviously probably not as big. But that's why I'm the coach, and so to me this is part of my job description, is to handle that part of it. I've not talked to Donald yet. Really no need right now, at least for me. Q. Doc, Kobe tweeted he couldn't play for Sterling, and you've seen some of your peers ‑‑ Mark Jackson just now said he couldn't take a job knowing this, if this is all true, about the owner. Are there things away from the series you're going to need to hear and see from Sterling or from people in the organization for you to want to continue working for this team? COACH RIVERS: Don't know yet. I'm just going to leave it at that. Q. Was Sterling's past with housing discrimination and his issues a consideration when you took the job? COACH RIVERS: It wasn't, honestly. I knew the past outside of that. Really didn't know a lot about that, to be honest, and probably should have, I guess. So, no. Q. I know this game is your priority, but do you think that this subject needs to remain front and center for a while? COACH RIVERS: You know, I don't know the answer to that. I think if there's anything, racism, injustice of any kind, it should always be front and center and we should never run from it. I think we all do a good job running from it. You should never run from it; you should confront it and try to do your best to handle it. I think we are doing our best right now in this case by trying to do that. How long it needs to stay front and center, I don't know.  Let's say until there is none. You know? Maybe that's how long. But it's a tough spot for our guys. And, again, I really‑‑ for them I feel awful, because this is not what they signed on for. So now they have to. Q. You say you're confronting this. How are you confronting this now? COACH RIVERS: Well, we've talked. We're playing. And that's our message. The one thing I've learned is if our message doesn't vibe with yours, that doesn't mean yours is right. You know, our message is to play.  Our message is that we're going to let no one and nothing stop us from what we want to do. And I think that's a good message. I really do. I think that's the message that we're trying to send. And if we can pull this off all the way, I think that would be a terrific message. And so I don't know or really care if it doesn't vibe with someone else's; that's the way we've chosen to do this. And I think it's the right thing for us. So that's what we've done. Q. Magic Johnson said he thought some of the fans should boycott the Clippers games. What would your reaction be if you showed up to a stadium that wasn't quite as full as you're used to? COACH RIVERS: I would understand. I hope not. We need them. I can tell you that. We need everybody. We play for them. We always have. So we do need them. We're going to need them bad on Tuesday. We're going to need them there. We're going to need them in our corner. But, listen, I get all of it. Like I said to the gentleman, someone wants to do it another way, I get that, too, and I have no problem with that either. So I don't know all the right things here. Q. When the game starts, will you look for any signs from your team to make sure they're fully engaged in this game? COACH RIVERS: That's a good question. I'm going to start the game like it's any other game knowing that it may not be. I don't know. I don't know how this game's going to play out. We could come out and be great. We could come out and start out great, run out of gas emotionally. I just don't know any of that. Honestly, the latter is my fear, that emotionally we can get through the beginning of the game but do we have enough in the tank. So I don't know. Again, I haven't been in this situation, and we're just going to have to wait and see. I think this is so individual, it really is. It's so individual, that there will be certain players that will be great and there will be certain players that have been thinking about this all night and they can't function. If you want me to be honest, that's what I expect. And my job will be to try to figure out who is functioning and who is not, who can get it together and who can't. And the ones who can't, try to get them. I wish I could tell you who those are. I just can't. Q. You talked about a pregame gesture, either a pregame gesture, either as a team or even jointly with‑‑ COACH RIVERS: We've talked about every subject that's possible to talk about, I can tell you that. And we're just going to go play basketball. I think that's the right thing. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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