Doc Rivers wasn’t only a successful basketball player who competed during 14 campaigns in the NBA, mostly representing the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks, but he also accomplished plenty during his 25 years as a coach.
This season he gave coaching a break and accepted a new job as a basketball analyst, which gives him a very refreshing perspective on the modern game. He recently warned U.S. players, as more and more international propects are dominating the league.
During an interview with Bill Simmons, he made clear comparisons between European athletes and the ones raised in the United States, saying that the foreign prospects come better prepared into the NBA.
“They’re competitors, and a lot of our young players are not. They play six games in a day. They come into the league, and they want to put on a show,” he said.
Doc Rivers says that European players are better prepared than US prospects 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/xExaIQnBxn
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He then recalled an interesting anecdote with a Wolves legend: “Kevin Garnett always told my story in the locker room because I would walk in every time we played in LA, every single time [I would say], ‘This is not a show, this is a competition. Anybody here that wants to put on a show for the Hollywood actors, you’re not playing tonight.’”
He was then asked to remember how those international players performed back when he competed, and how they would fare against the ones entering the league today. He didn’t recall them being so strong as they are now.
“They all were soft,” he laughed just thinking about it. “When you saw a foreign guy, you had a good game. That’s like the Larry Bird thing. ‘You put this guy on me? This is embarrassing.’”
Once he had a meeting he had with several people from the NBA and had this same conversation. “One guy who charts the games says that the American players in the summer, high school kids, play six games a week, and they have one practice. The European players have one game a week, and they have six practices. The second part is because you have all these games, you stop being competitive,” Rivers shared.
Rivers recalled already seeing the issues in the youth development system when he was coaching his son Austin
The 62-year-old revealed he’s been witnessing issues with the U.S. youth development system for quite some time now, even back when he was coaching his own son Austin.
“I watched Austin play growing up. It hurt him. Number one, this stupid ranking stuff. ‘You’re the number one player in the country.’ Who knows where you’re at? Number two, you play three of four games in a day. It used to drive me crazy because Austin, at halftime, would not even take a shot. He would just sit,” Rivers reminisced.
It is important to also notice that all last five league MVP has been won by international athletes, and it seems this season will suffer the same fate. Doc insists that they must match the European youth development system before it’s too late.
“It has to be fixed because we have the talent. The players are far more talented than we ever were. It ain’t even close, but they don’t know how to play,” he concluded.
