Doc Rivers: Working with James Harden was 'challenging'

Doc Rivers was fired by the Philadelphia 76ers this offseason following three decent, albeit somewhat underwhelming, years with the organization.

Philly failed to reach the Eastern Conference Finals in any of those seasons.

One of the key problems that the Sixers faced during Rivers’ reign was a continual inability for the coach to get on the same page as star guard James Harden.

The pair bumped heads early and often – culminating in Harden essentially signing Rivers’ firing warrant with his comments following this year’s playoffs.

Harden's role in Rivers’ firing has been covered ad nauseam at this point.

During a recent appearance on media personality Bill Simmons’ podcast, Rivers broke down in great detail why he and Harden simply couldn’t see eye-to-eye.

“It was challenging,” Rivers admitted.

“More because we were fighting two things … and not like visually fighting. It’s that James is so good at playing one way and the way I believe you have to play to win, in some ways, is different because it’s a lot of giving up the ball, moving the ball and coming back to the ball.

“I would’ve loved to have him younger, when that was easier for him, because giving up the ball and coming back to it is hard. It’s physical and it’s exhausting.”

As far as Rivers is concerned, if Harden had continued playing in the second half of the season the way he did in the first, things might have turned out differently.

“I thought the first half of the year we were the best team in the game,” Rivers continued.

“I thought James was playing perfect basketball … he was a point guard of the team, he was still scoring — but he was doing more playmaking and scoring. And then the second half he started scoring more and I thought we got more stagnant at times. I thought we changed.”

Harden and Rivers both come with a certain amount of baggage.

Both have proven that much during their stops with other teams.

Will either man be able to find a winning situation going forward now that they don’t have to deal with each other anymore? Time will tell.