Rivers and Simmons Trade Jabs Over Coach’s Departure
Things got pretty heated during the second round of the NBA draft between Doc Rivers and notable Celtics fan and sports writer Bill Simmons. The scribe voiced what every Celtics fan has been thinking: that Rivers quit on the team. The problem is that Simmons is on a national stage, therefore reaching Rivers’ ears, and his comments didn’t sit quite well with the Rivers family.
Simmons fired off a gem about Rivers, voicing his outrage over the coach’s choices over the past few weeks that have changed the Celtics as we know them.
“The truth keeps changing.” Simmons said. “[Rivers] is giving different quotes about this. He did know, he didn’t know, he kind of knew. He wanted the trade to happen, he was coming back, he needed a year off,” Simmons said. “When he sticks to a story, I’ll believe the truth.”
Not about to sit on the sidelines and take it, Rivers fired back with a few barbs of his own.
“I would like to call him an idiot,” Rivers said of Simmons, “but I’m too classy for that.”
Rivers was not the only one to get involved though. His son, Jeremiah Rivers, stepped up to his defense via Twitter. Some of them get a bit heated, so here are some of the tamer ones that are a bit more appropriate for a public forum. Feel free to check others out on your own time.
@BillSimmons @espn My father has never quit anything in his life. He now has an NBA Championship, and helped in rejuvenating the Celtics.
— Jeremiah Rivers (@JRivers25) June 28, 2013
@BillSimmons @espn Your the same guy who was trying to run my dad out of town when it seemed like the Celtics were down and out.
— Jeremiah Rivers (@JRivers25) June 28, 2013
@BillSimmons@espn If you don’t have all the facts, which you clearly DON’T, I suggest you sit down and shut up. Good day sir.
— Jeremiah Rivers (@JRivers25) June 28, 2013
It seems there’s no lost love between the Rivers family and Simmons. And while Celtics fans have reason to be disappointed in the coach, Rivers is sticking to his story that leaving Boston was not a personal decision, it was just that he needed a change of scenery and was heading in a different direction.
