While home-court advantage is something that most teams embrace, Doc Rivers didn’t get that warm and fuzzy feeling about the Wells Fargo Center when he coached the 76ers.
Rivers coached the Sixers for three seasons and never got his teams past the second round of the playoffs during his time in the City of Brotherly Love.
Rivers, speaking on latest episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast, on Thursday” opened up about what it was like to coach in Philadelphia.
“Usually you play better at home,” Rivers said. “The only place that I thought it was difficult to play at home is in Philly, because of the crowd. I thought it affected our players some.”
The Sixers went 24-17 in 2021-22 and 29-12 at home during the 2022-23 season, which was Rivers’ last in Philly.
Their best home record came in 2020-21 with no fans in the stands when they went 29-7.
The season before Rivers took over as coach, the Sixers went 31-4 at home.
Philadelphia went 25-15 on their home court last year, which was Nick Nurse’s first as the head coach with Philadelphia.
Rivers, who started the 2023-24 season as an analyst for ESPN, took over as head coach of the Bucks midseason this past season and has coached the Magic and Clippers as well as in Boston and Philly.
