LAS VEGAS — Doc Rivers stopped himself from launching into a tirade — half Baptist preacher, half exasperated coach — when he spoke about the simplicity of basketball, the simplicity of this NBA Cup.
“I’m not going to get on the soapbox,” Rivers said Saturday. “But I just think, and that’s what they’re going to do [blame this] generation, but I try not to do it, but to take up the challenge. We avoid many challenges.”
The Milwaukee Bucks coach wasn’t specifically talking about his team with “We,” but rather basketball culture as a whole. In many ways, players have become too cool to try, and something as physically and emotionally draining as putting yourself out there is seen as a black mark, a reason to ridicule players. Being a “try hard” is mocked in some spaces, in perhaps small but loud corners of the basketball discussion.
That’s why the Milwaukee Bucks advanced past the Atlanta Hawks into the NBA Cup finals, which will take place Tuesday night in Las Vegas, and perhaps even why Warriors coach Steve Nash was so upset about the ridiculous decision at the end of the knockout outround of his team. against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
Both coaches weren’t afraid to put it out there, even though this isn’t a playoff series or a playoff game, and this can be easy to forget during the All-Star break when the regular season really gets into its usual froth, but it is high… There is competition at stake that needs to be invested in.
“Let’s get our name out there,” Rivers said. “We’re going to try to win it. If we don’t win it, we don’t win it, but… there’s nothing wrong with saying you want to win something, and if you win it, fine, and you don’t, at least you went for it .”
That’s an attitude that pervades during the playoffs and must-win games, but not on a Tuesday night in December when the playing field isn’t a monstrosity and it’s just a regular old logo.
Yahoo Sports spoke with Rivers shortly after he wrapped up his press conference on Saturday night to get him to elaborate on these comments.
“Last year I thought a lot of teams said, ‘Yeah, I don’t know [about the Cup.]”I like it this year because more teams are saying, ‘We want to win.’ When you lose, you think, ‘Well [it doesn’t matter].’ I don’t want that problem. I want us to put our name on it.”
It sounds like a fear of failure, which seems to fly in the face of all the ways players are wired before reaching this level. But it exists.
“Yes, absolutely. If you don’t say it and it doesn’t happen, no one will say anything,” Rivers continued. “I just think competition can’t sneak up on you, you have to accept it and embrace it and want it. And if you do that, you have a chance to win it.”
The teams that adhere to that standard are the ones that ultimately win, he said. When the word “accountability” came up, Rivers buzzed.
“That’s the word,” Rivers said. “Doing that comes with responsibility, and that’s a good thing.”
That was what the NBA needed for this four-day outing. More than they needed Steph or LeBron — even though finding LeBron seems harder right now than finding Waldo or Carmen Sandiego — because the NBA has no shortage of star power.
We know who the players are, and in some cases they are overexposed by the way modern media works. And sure, the NBA needs to have a contingency plan for the day that LeBron retires or Steph might leave not far behind him, but that’s not the reason the NBA Cup exists.
Star power helps here, but the four teams ended up in Vegas because they prioritized winning and made ruthless competitiveness part of their DNA. Rockets coach Ime Udoka gives no quarters or no effs, and that message is echoed by Dillon Brooks and Amen Thompson and Tari Eason and down the roster. The Oklahoma City Thunder, even when they lost a lot of games, were still a team you couldn’t just turn up for an easy night out.
The Atlanta Hawks and Bucks played an entertaining and competitive 48 minutes in the first semifinal, and it was necessary for the NBA world to see. Giannis Antetokounmpo searched the ground for loose balls and it felt like the stakes were higher.
The Bucks have needed that competitive fire for a while now, and after a year of struggling with coaching changes and a rough start to this season, they are now in much better shape. Bobby Portis is the face of that fire.
“We get constructive criticism, not only from our coaches, but we also police ourselves,” Portis told Yahoo Sports. “I think the biggest turning point in our season is coming together and checking ourselves. As a player you know when you are not doing well. You know when you’re not putting in that extra effort, like, “Hey, buddy, come on.” Holding each other accountable and having fun playing.”
That’s Portis’ fuel, and he’s learned when to harness it and when to unleash it. Even as his skills have evolved into his 10th year, he knows he’s in the league because of that extra something he brings to a locker room.
He’s never been too cool to compete, too cool to care.
“It’s kind of tough because I’ve always been a guy who wore his heart on his sleeve,” Portis said. “I never really let the misses affect my efforts. I always make an effort. You can be an energy giver or an energy taker, and I always give to the team.”
That sinks in, and that makes it possible to call on teammates if that effort is not reciprocated. Like he called his team last year when Adrian Griffin was coaching, and he advocated for more.
He had the ability to do that, and it took him a few years to realize he could do that. And while it was received as it was on the outside, it was clear that a level of truth was needed in the locker room.
The NBA doesn’t really have a competition problem, but it does have one of perception. The perception that it takes a tournament to bring out more than the usual moves, the perception that players don’t care as much as players in previous eras did.
Fighting the calm is probably the easiest answer.
