Bill Simmons and Doc Rivers are engaging in a war of words over social media and on television. The war began on Thursday when Simmons questioned Rivers over his departure from the Celtics last week.
Simmons claimed, “the truth keeps changing,” and, “When he sticks to a story, I’ll believe the truth.” The ESPN analyst went on to say that Rivers essentially quit on the Celtics and lied his way out of the job.
Apparently the accusations didn’t sit too well with Rivers, who is now the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. Rivers told the “real story” on Friday during The Dan Patrick Show . He explained that his decision was a “win-win” for both himself and the Celtics, who “wanted to unload contracts for draft picks.”
Rivers’ contract just happened to be one of them. He added:
“This is a direct quote from an owner: Listen, this is a win-win for us. If we can get a pick for you and you have a chance to go to a team like the Clippers and continue to coach and continue to pursue winning and we can get to rebuilding.”
Doc Rivers went on to describe his relationship with Bill Simmons, calling him “a fan” of the sport. He added, “Is he qualified to do the NBA? Well, we can debate that all day … He’s not a friend of mine or a fan of mine and he never has been.”
This isn’t the only contention Doc Rivers and Bill Simmons have had recently. On Friday, Simmons responded to an alleged quote by Rivers , which was tweeted by WEEI blogger Ben Rorbach. Rorbach wrote , “Doc on @WEEI about @BillSimmons: ‘He did everything he could to get me fired. Wrote letters, wanted to sit down w/ owners to talk about it.’ ”
The accusation didn’t sit well with Simmons, who retweeted Rorbach, then added , “The quote I just retweeted is an outright, 100 percent lie. I’d be careful, Glenn. Seriously. Stop talking. You are making sh*t up.”
It will be interesting to see if (or should we say how?) the war between Bill Simmons and Doc Rivers heats up any further.
[Images via David Shankbone and Kevin Allison ]
