January 13, 2025
Whereas enjoying for the Atlanta Hawks, he alleges the Celtics made certain the Hawks gamers didn’t get meals service on the lodge they stayed at
Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers recalled the difficulties he encountered as an Atlanta Hawks participant dealing with the Boston Celtics in 1988, nevertheless it was greater than the sport itself, as his staff confronted different points once they performed on the notorious Boston Backyard.
In line with Basketball Community, when discussing the final playoff recreation within the difficult sequence in opposition to the Jap Convention staff with the perfect report that 12 months, Rivers spoke concerning the techniques the Boston staff included to achieve a bonus in opposition to the Hawks earlier than the groups met on the basketball courtroom.
It was Recreation 7 of the 1988 Jap Convention Semifinals the place the Hawks had been up in opposition to the Celtics. The sport was a winner-takes-all contest to advance to the convention finals, and the favored Celtics, who possessed the perfect report within the East, held homecourt benefit because of the staff’s standing. Outdoors of the problem of attempting to beat the perfect staff within the east, Rivers said that the Celtics employed different techniques to assist their staff acquire the sting, even earlier than the sport began.
The Celtics proprietor on the time, Pink Auerbach, had a repute for utilizing unfair measures in opposition to opposing groups once they got here to Boston, so it wasn’t past the gamers pondering he was behind a number of issues that occurred in the course of the sequence.
“The morning of Recreation 7, nobody bought their room service order on the lodge. We didn’t know what was happening,” Rivers said. “We simply assumed it was Pink Auerbach being Pink Auerbach.”
Being that the gamers didn’t eat, starvation pains led to them looking for one thing to eat once they arrived on the stadium.
“I bear in mind having chips on the bus going to the sport. A few guys tried to get issues after the walkthrough within the ballroom. We had been all scrambling simply to get one thing to eat.”
Rivers additionally recalled that his coach, Mike Fratello went loopy as a result of the chalkboard that he all the time had to assist map out recreation plans for the staff was lacking. As his anger elevated, Fratello simply knew in his thoughts that Auerbach had one thing to do with it and it angered him.
“There was no chalkboard for Coach Fratello earlier than Recreation 7, and I bear in mind him shedding his thoughts. He’s within the hallway screaming, ‘The place the hell is my chalkboard?’ I bear in mind simply laughing away,” Rivers mentioned. “We may care much less, however Mike was so mad. He was mad at Pink. He was simply satisfied once more it was the Boston stuff.”
Whether or not the techniques labored or not, the Hawks ended up shedding to the Celtics in an in depth recreation by a rating of 118-116.
RELATED CONTENT: ‘I’m Simply Gonna Get pleasure from Life’ Doc Rivers Uncertain If He’ll Return To Teaching for NBA