Doc Rivers: “The Instigator Deserves To Be Suspended”

Doc Rivers: “The Instigator Deserves to be Suspended”

It’s a dilemma that has plagued all of us – especially those who grew up with siblings of a similar age. The one who retaliates is almost universally punished more strictly than the instigator – who may not get punished at all. In my case, it was multiple siblings and the instigator was almost always the same, younger mastermind at parental deception (and stacking the deck in War at age four), who never spent a second in his room grounded, while the other two of us spent half of our young lives detained essentially for allowing our buttons to be pushed. Who is more at fault? Who deserves more punishment?In most situations of this nature, no one is purely in the right. That was evident in Game One of the Celtics- Heat series when Quentin Richardson took exception to Paul Pierce’s over-dramatization of his pain in a not-so-nice and rather invasive way. Kevin Garnett and his ‘boes took exception to that. No one in the group was in the right, but Garnett was the only one ultimately suspended. It’s the way it is. My guess is that, growing up, Garnett was not the younger mastermind who conned his parents and cheated at cards. Richardson may have been.Doc Rivers joined Dennis and Callahan on WEEI in Boston to talk about the suspension to Kevin Garnett, Quentin Richardson’s role, playing in Miami, and his assistant coaches.

On if he thinks Quentin Richardson should have been suspended:

“I do think that the instigator deserves to be suspended just like the retaliator. I just think there is a lot of instigating going on in our league right now. I don’t know if you saw that game earlier in the year with the Magic and the Lakers. Matt Barnes kept doing stuff to Kobe. It was so over the top. If Kobe would have reacted – which he didn’t and I give him credit for that – but if he had, Kobe would have been the only one suspended where clearly there was a guy who was trying to antagonize the other guy over and over again. I just think that if the league really wants to clean up fights and stuff like that, it’s not going to work. Kevin should have been suspended, but so should have Quentin Richardson. Do that and that stuff goes away.”

On if the Kevin Garnett suspension was a rallying point for the Celtics:

“It clearly gives you a rallying point. Having said that, it could go the other way too. For one game, it was terrific. Baby (Glen Davis) was absolutely sensational. I think the MVP of the game was Kendrick Perkins because most of Baby’s passes came from Perkins. I thought his defense, his energy, his making the hockey pass and the assist pass changed the game for us… But I don’t make it a point of emphasis. I don’t talk about it at all. I don’t make statements like, ‘Baby you need to do this because Kevin is not here.’ I just say, ‘ Baby this is what we need you to do.’ One of the things we talked about before the game was, ‘Everybody just do your job. Don’t try to do more. Don’t try to do extra. Just do your job and do it hard and we’ll be OK.”

On if the team should be motivated to finish the series early to be as fresh as possible for the next:

“Our team should just be motivated to win the series as quickly as possible. And Miami should be focused on extending the series and winning it as well. We just want to win the series. I don’t want to focus on anything else but the series.”
On if he is glad that, being in Boston, his team does not have the daily distractions of Miami:
“I would say yes. But one thing that I have found is that the home teams deal with it better. The teams that live there, it’s no big deal to them. I think it’s the visiting teams – like us – you worry about it. I don’t honestly in this because it’s the playoffs, but you always do in regular season games.”

And on the role of the assistant coaches:

“It’s usually offensive or defensive adjustments. It’s funny, during the timeouts when we walk out to the huddle, I would say 50-50, 50% of the time you hear them and 50% of the time you don’t hear a word they say. I always tell them to keep talking. Somebody may throw something out on the wall and it may stick. You never know.”