One day after the Clippers announced that Doc Rivers would no longer be the team’s head coach despite having two years left on his contract, ESPN and The Athletic published two missives about Rivers’ final days with the team. Each is worth a close read, but there are a few points that stick out about why the Clippers felt they had to make this decision.
Firstly, the choice to let Rivers go was ultimately Steve Ballmer’s. The front office was consulted, but Ballmer made the call. The reason that he was comfortable coming to that conclusion was because of his analysis of the Clippers’ shortcomings differed from that of Rivers.