Superstars get special treatment in the NBA.
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers recently explained how Los Angeles Lakers won a title despite All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis receiving special treatment.
“The Lakers are a great example,” Rivers said of groups that find cohesion around the team’s best players “Clearly LeBron and AD got different treatment, but the guys around them said, ‘Who cares? As long as we win.'”
Rivers, 59, joined the 76ers in October after he was ousted from the Los Angeles Clippers.
The head coach’s tenure with the Clippers ended in sour defeat. The Clippers blew a 3-1 lead against the Denver Nuggets and got eliminated in the second round of the 2020 postseason.
The Clippers had grand expectations around the star pairing of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George last season. In fact, they were expected to meet the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.
Instead, the Lakers were the group that knit perfect cohesion and cruised to the 2020 NBA Finals, where they dismantled the Miami Heat in six games.
Now, Rivers will try to emulate what the Lakers did with the young duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid in Philadelphia.
