Sixers: Doc Rivers gaslights in First Take interview about Ben Simmons

On Tuesday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Ben Simmons has no intentions of showing up to Sixers‘ training camp next week and “never intends to play another game for the franchise”.

Shortly after this report was released, Doc Rivers was booked on First Take for an appearance Wednesday morning.

Here’s a brief overview on how that went:

Doc Rivers went on ESPN’s First Take to address the Sixers’ ongoing Ben Simmons trade saga, and lied in the process.

The most important thing is that Rivers did confirm Woj’s report: Simmons has told Daryl Morey, Doc Rivers, and executives that he wants out. In response to Stephen A. Smith asking what he thinks about Simmons threatening to hold out, Rivers did infer that a holdout is the situation currently.

Rivers then compared the situation to when Shawn Elliott returned to the Spurs after a trade to Houston from Detroit fell through when he failed a physical. The point he was making was that Simmons could still come back and reverse course but, it’s a pretty questionable comparison to say the least. Also, Elliott had a serious medical issue whereas Simmons does not.

That’s only some of the weird in this interview before we talk about the outright lies. Rivers did address his postgame comments after Game 7. Factually, Rivers did state that he didn’t know if Simmons could be the point guard on a championship team back in June:

Rivers’ comments cannot be “misrepresented” as he claims. Fans can argue about whether it was right or wrong to do so, but he did throw Simmons under the bus in his Game 7 remarks. This gaslighting and revisionist history from Doc is simply unacceptable.

He went so far in the other direction to walk back his original comment on Wednesday that he said, “We can win a title with Ben [Simmons]. I just believe that”.

It’s hard to classify this interview as anything other than a poor attempt at damage control. Putting Rivers on ESPN’s biggest sports program the day after Simmons’ planned holdout becomes public was not the right decision, especially if he wasn’t going to be honest to the media, Simmons, or fans.

At the end of the day, the Sixers are still in Simmons purgatory given his holdout situation. They have not received an offer of their liking, per Woj. It’s hard to know what Morey will do one way or the other at the end of the day, but Rivers’ First Take appearance was an ill-advised first step to talking about it publicly.