Doc Rivers: “I don’t’ use tragedy for sports”
The Red Sox and the Bruins have made it clear that they are trying even harder to win games to keep Boston strong in light of recent events.
The Celtics will be playing their first home game since the Boston Marathon bombings, but coach Doc Rivers doesn’t believe in using this tragedy to try to get his team to work harder.
“I won’t use that, I can tell you that. I don’t do that. I don’t’ use tragedy for sports. I just don’t think it’s right,” said Rivers. “We want to win for the city. It would be terrific. But that is not anything I’m going to use in a press conference or with our players. We should want to win because we want to win. If we win, it would be great for the city. That’s as far as I’ll go with it.”
Kudos for Rivers for making his players realize that they can only win if they actually want it, not just because the city is still a bit rocky.
This doesn’t mean that the Bruins and the Red Sox don’t want victories–it just means that while they are using this tragedy to motivate themselves more than they already are, Rivers does not want his players to do that. He simply wants the team to want it more than the New York Knicks.
The Celtics trail the Knicks 2-0 in the series. They will play in Boston Friday night at 8pm on ESPN.
Do you think the Boston teams should be using this tragedy to motivate them? Tell us how you fell in the comments below.
