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Doc Rivers a Finalist for Phoenix Suns Job
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The Phoenix Suns are advancing four candidates to a final round of interviews this week, including two NBA championship coaches: Nick Nurse and Doc Rivers, sources told ESPN on Tuesday night.
Nurse and Rivers will meet with senior leadership along with two rising stars in the coaching profession: Suns associate head coach Kevin Young and Sacramento Kings associate head coach Jordi Fernandez, sources said.
That’s wild. Imagine flaming out with the Clippers, only to land a job with the Sixers, then you flame out there and get interviews to coach a team that has Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. That 2008 ring has carried Doc further than anything has carried anyone before.
What’s most interesting in that blurb is the mention of Kevin Young, who used to be a Brett Brown assistant. This guy right here:
Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today Sports
Young was here from 2017 to 2020 and followed Monty Williams to Phoenix. He’d speak at Brett’s preseason coaching clinic and took over the Suns for a brief stint when Williams had to go into health and safety protocols.
The thing with Doc that I keep coming back to is when he did his introductory press conference in Philly and said that he had thought about taking a coaching break after leaving the Clippers. That raised a red flag. How much did Doc really want to coach? Did he have the juice for it? Was he completely dialed in? Only he knows.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com