<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">?It?s not coaching that?s the problem here, and it?s not our offense - it?s us and our commitment. I don?t want anyone blaming the coaches for this. We have good defensive schemes, and they put us in the right position to make plays. We just have to stick with it and see it all the way through.? - Kendrick Perkins after the Celtics? 92-89 loss to Orlando Monday night Kendrick Perkins? comments about his coaches were unsolicited. The Celtics center was talking about his team?s latest collapse, and suddenly considered it important to defend his coaches. That?s what happens on a 1-6 team. Whether out of loyalty or something more nefarious, players? thoughts automatically turn to the security of the coaches - and especially the head coach - when the ship starts to list. Perkins, clearly appreciative of the work Doc Rivers and Co. have done in trying to wring some consistency out of this unpredictable bunch, instinctively moved to defend them. Rivers knows, because he?s already been here. Before he was fired by Orlando at the start of the 2003-04 season, the Magic had won their first game and lost the next 10. The difference now, as evidenced by comments to the Herald from Celtics owners Wyc Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca before the season started, is that Rivers still has a blessing from up above. Ditto for Danny Ainge. In Orlando, where Rivers didn?t get along with then-general manager John Gabriel, front office discord had already set the stage for a firing. There?s also another difference - one that binds Rivers to this team despite its dreadful start. Perkins? comments only buoyed Rivers? spirits yesterday in what could have been a particularly rough day of practice. ?The biggest difference for me between now and then is that (Orlando) team was a bad team,? Rivers said. ?Someone asked me that question the other day, too, and I said that the difference is that I would never trade the team I have now. ?This is a team you have to stay with through the pain. But that?s all right with me. I can live with this kind of frustration.? </div> Source Interesting take on the coaching situation. Everyone seems to support Rivers except the fans.
Everyone seems to support Rivers except the people who have to to save face in the media. When your team is abysmal, incapable of finishing, and extremely poorly coached, the only thing you potentially have to ground the media and keep the vultures from circling is harmony amongst the higher ups. Everyone remaining professional, despite the firing coming soon, is basically your only way to combat all the negative attention in a locker room. Thank you everyone for being so upright about all this, but no thanks for not being able to just get this over with.
