Doc on Heat: "Miami is defending nothing"

This was tweeted by an NBA reporter, quoting Doc at practice:


Doc Rivers on Heat: "Miami is defending nothing. That's in boxing, you give the belt back. They don't have this year's trophy."


This reminds me of a strategy used by Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team, the "Miracle on Ice" Team. They were going up against the Soviet team, the best hockey team in the world BY FAR, a team that was stacked with so many players that were the best at their position it was ridiculous. An extremely intimidating situation, to say the least. Herb Brooks started chipping away at their mystique by making fun of them in front of his players.

He compared the Great Boris Mikhailov to Stan Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy fame).

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=638&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnso&tbnid=a3NR1yegDnUScM:&imgrefurl=http://icehockey.wikia.com/wiki/Boris_Mikhailov&docid=8qvZRQzR5-bB2M&imgurl=http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111208184245/icehockey/images/a/a5/Borismikhailov.jpg&w=622&h=800&ei=Tr2OUNQZo_eKAuaVgKgO&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1017&vpy=128&dur=689&hovh=255&hovw=198&tx=102&ty=134&sig=107041690455484971870&page=1&tbnh=153&tbnw=113&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0,i:89

He made fun of another Soviet player with a big nose, claiming he looked like a chicken. And on and on. They were the great Soviet Olympic Hockey Team but he made them into a bunch of jokes. You can beat a bunch of jokes.


Doc's not making fun of James or Wade or Ray but he is knocking them off their pedestal. I love it. Go Doc!


bob



.

i remember KG making this same sort of comment the yr after winning it all. a reporter asked him somethign about defending the champonship and his reply was along the lines of, "we're not defending our championship, we won it last year, its ours, now we're out to win another one, but nobody can take that from us"


it was something along them lines..

It is interesting that Doc has completely changed his mind about defending the title as the champion.

Doc is now saying:
"I never believed that anybody is ever defending a title, because that was last year," Rivers said before Boston's offday workout at AmericanAirlines Arena on Monday. "They don’t own the trophy this year. That’s what I tell our guys: Miami isn’t considered anything. They won the title last year. You don’t give your trophy back -- that’s in boxing, where you get the belt back, that’s defending the title. In the NBA, you win a new title.

Back in May of 2009, this is what Doc said:
“The only thing that bothers me about the way the postseason ended was, you look at Kevin (Garnett), you look at Leon (Powe) and you just say, ‘Darn—we didn’t have a real chance to defend our title with our best stuff,’” said Rivers. “That’s real tough for a coach and for a team.”

http://greenstreet.weei.com/sports/boston/basketball/celtics/2009/05/19/doc-rivers-on-dennis-callahan/

Who cares. Bring on Tuesday Night.