Rivers discusses tampering allegations, Harden and Embiid’s offseasons originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
From where Doc Rivers is sitting, the Sixers did nothing wrong during free agency.
The Sixers’ head coach addressed the NBA’s investigation into potential tampering by the team in an episode of ESPN’s The VC Show podcast with Vince Carter and Ros Gold-Onwude released Tuesday.
“Well, you just do,” Rivers said when asked how the Sixers organization deals with the investigation. “You handle it, because it’s not true. Honestly, when James (Harden) did this and said this … first of all, we didn’t know what we were going to do with the money we were getting. And listen, James won, too, because James could’ve opted into a one-year deal. Instead, we gave him three years. And so both parties won in a lot of ways. Listen, it worked out for us, it worked out for James.
“I guarantee you (Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey) had no idea what James was going to do. I remember talking to him on the eve of when James could opt in or out, and he was like, ‘We’ve got five hours left.’ I mean, that was Daryl Morey, so that tells you he had no idea. I did, honestly. I really believed that James was not going to opt in, that he was going to try to do a longer-term deal. But I didn’t know, I can tell you that. That’s for sure.”
Though Rivers seemingly alluded to the Sixers signing Harden for three years, the 10-time All-Star’s new contract is a two-year deal with a player option in the second season. Instead of opting into approximately $47.4 million for the 2022-23 season, Harden will make $33 million next year and then have a $35.6 million player option.
Rivers shared his thoughts on the motivation behind the league’s scrutiny of the Sixers.
“You have 29 competitors against you,” he said. “There’s no doubt that some teams — especially probably the (teams) that we took players from — they’re like, ‘This is not fair.’ That’s the the way it works. I get that; I’ve been on it. When I was with the Clippers, we ended up getting Kawhi (Leonard). The whole league was all over us about it. So it’s just the way it works, but this is a competition.”
There’s no debate about whether the Sixers are now free to talk with their own players. And, according to Rivers, he’s been doing that plenty with Harden.
“He calls me too much, you can tell him that,” Rivers joked. “He really…