It has been almost a month since Doc Rivers took over as the Milwaukee Bucks‘ new Head Coach. With Rivers on board, the team has lost seven of their last 11 games. Tonight, the Bucks will stop at the Wells Fargo Center in Philly for a showdown against the Sixers. For Rivers, this will be his first time playing against the team that fired him. The Sixers did not hesitate in firing Rivers last year in May after their defeat to the Celtics in Game 7 of the Conference Semifinals.

His first year with the Sixers was a similar rollercoaster ride that took them to the playoffs but ended with a disappointing loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the semifinals. This loss uncovered some degree of dissatisfaction from Rivers and Joel Embiid toward Ben Simmons after his controversial play. Simply put, things were said during the post-game conference that did not sit right with Simmons.

Doc Rivers’ words were misinterpreted

This was one of the most agonizing junctures in Rivers’ coaching career because of what went down after Game 7. In a recent interview with ESPN, he however clears the air on the fiasco, “I had a terrible press conference after that Game 7, we lost. I said something — I meant something different, but it was taken differently. That started it. Then Joel [Embiid] had a bad press conference.” It seemed like both Rivers and Embiid had questioned Simmons’ abilities during the post-game conference.

It all started when Simmons passed up an open dunk in Game 7 of the semifinals, something fans cannot get over to this day. With less than four minutes remaining in the last quarter, Simmons passed the ball instead of dunking over opponent Trae Young, which would have tied the score to 88-88. It culminated in a loss for the Sixers in the game, and the series.

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Joel Embiid hinted that it was Simmons’ fault

After the game, when the media asked Embiid what the turning point of the game was, he hinted at Simmons’ pass. The reigning MVP did not explicitly call out Simmons, but he did say, “I’ll be honest, I thought the turning point was when we—I don’t know how to say it—but I thought the turning point was just we had an open shot and we made one free throw.”

To add to this, when Rivers was asked if he thought Simmons could be a PG on a championship team, he expressed his uncertainty, “I don’t even know how to answer that right now.” Looking back on it now, Rivers admits that he should have handled the question better. “I don’t know if the whole Ben thing was going to happen regardless, but I didn’t like me being a part of that,” he tells ESPN.

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