Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid was "shocked" by the team's decision to fire coach Doc Rivers, president Daryl Morey said during his end-of-season press conference on Wednesday.
Asked about ESPN's Stephen A. Smith saying that Embiid was unhappy about Rivers' dismissal, Morey said, "They had a strong relationship." Then he likened the situation to a trade.
"I have to make tough calls all the time with trades," Morey said. "You know, Joel was disappointed in -- some of it was he didn't know the player we were getting in the trade, he ended up helping us -- but he was disappointed in the players that went out. I think it's natural to be very close with the people in the locker room. He was very close with coach Rivers. And yeah, he was shocked about the change. And it's my job to help convince him that the new coach is someone that he'll have a great relationship with as well."
Morey was careful not to criticize Rivers, beginning the press conference by calling him a "first-ballot Hall of Famer" as well as a "great leader and someone I learned a lot from." As far as why the Sixers will have a different coach next season, Morey did not offer many specifics.
"My job is to evaluate everything," Morey said. "And we felt like that was the best move for helping us get to our goals going forward. It was carefully thought out, and I recommended it to ownership and they accepted it."
Coaches, like players and executives, "have strengths across different things," Morey said, "so sometimes it's a fit thing. It's like, you know, we need a little more of this and a little less of that. It's not any specific, like, we need X; it's like, with the new coach, the mix of strengths that they have, how are they going to work with the mix of strengths of our players? And we feel like this was the right decision to move forward."
Morey said Philadelphia is "looking for someone who brings leadership, accountability, someone who is good at tactics, someone who has great relationships with his star players and someone who is good at recruiting star players and players want to play for, someone who builds a great organization." He added that he wanted to be clear that he "100%" believes the Sixers "had that with coach Rivers," as "those are the kinds of criteria that led to hiring Doc. And we're going to work hard to find someone who hits all those marks again."
The team hired Rivers in October 2020, several weeks before hiring Morey to run the front office. This next coaching hire will be Morey's first as team president in Philadelphia.
Embiid has only had two head coaches since being drafted in 2014: Brett Brown and, for the last three seasons, Rivers. On Sunday, after the Sixers' season-ending loss in Game 7 against the Boston Celtics, Embiid said that Rivers had "done a fantastic job," specifically referencing to the way he navigated Ben Simmons' trade request and holdout in 2021-22, without mentioning Simmons by name.
"I don't make the decisions, and I think he should be fine," Embiid said. "We've got a great relationship. I think you look at the whole situation that we had a year or two ago, I thought he kept the team afloat. He's been a great leader for all of us, a great motivator."
Embiid also brought up the recent firings of Monty Williams in Phoenix and MIke Budenholzer in Milwaukee. "You look at what's happening all over the league, it's tough," he said, repeating that he's glad he doesn't have to make these kinds of decisions. Immediately after Rivers' firing, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Williams and Budenholzer, along with Nick Nurse, Frank Vogel, Mike D'Antoni and Sam Cassell are all candidates to replace him.
