Doc is in: Rivers says 76ers' talent reason he took coaching job

Doc Rivers was introduced as  the Philadelphia 76ers' new head coach Monday afternoon, citing it as too good of an opportunity to pass up.

"I love coaching. I absolutely love it," Rivers said on a video conference call with reporters from the practice court inside the team's Camden, New Jersey, practice facility. "But I was not going to just coach anybody, I can tell you that. I was ready to take a break ... it just depended on the team that was available, and if that team in my opinion was ready to win."

Rivers said that three teams reached out to his agent, Lonnie Cooper, within hours of the news coming out about his dismissal from the LA Clippers after their flameout in the Western Conference semifinals. They lost to the Denver Nuggets after taking a 3-1 lead in the series and holding double-digit leads in Games 5, 6 and 7.

But he said he met with the Sixers first, and that it quickly became clear to him that the team's talent, led by All-Stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, made this a job he simply had to take.

Philadelphia has a roster full of talent, led by the Simmons-Embiid pairing, a tandem that Rivers immediately identified as worthy of making him choose to forgo a break from coaching and instead dive right back in again.

"They've won 65% of the games they've played," Rivers said, referring to Simmons and Embiid, "so it clearly works when they play together. ... this team is loaded with talent. We just have to figure out how to make it work the best."

This story has not been edited by www.republicworld.com and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.