Rowan Kavner
LOS ANGELES – Circumstances happen in life where NBA players and coaches put basketball and the trash talk and rivalries stemming from the sport aside.
The passing of Flip Saunders was one of those moments.
Clippers head coach Doc Rivers and Kings head coach George Karl were both among the coaches attending the funeral and returning on a flight organized by Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle and owner Mark Cuban prior to tip-off between the Clippers and Kings on Halloween.
“I want to thank Rick Carlisle,” Rivers said after the game. “He got all this together, Mark Cuban gave us the plane. Today was a neat day for coaches, the fellowship.”
Rivers was on a plane with the coach he was about to face in Karl and another coach he just got done playing in Carlisle, in addition to Lakers assistant coach Mark Madsen and former Thunder head coach Scott Brooks.
What was an extremely emotional day ended up being one that brought the NBA community together, which is something Rivers said Saunders, a “coaches’ coach,” would’ve wanted.
“His son, by the way, Ryan, today, he was amazing,” Rivers said. “There’s no way I could’ve gotten up there and spoke the way he spoke. I think there was not a dry eye in the house today. It was really good. Good stuff.”
On the way home from the funeral, there was Karl doing his play sheet in preparation to play Rivers, and Rivers drawing up his play sheet in preparation to play Karl.
Rivers joked that he peeked a couple times to make sure Karl wasn’t looking. But it didn’t matter. It was all about much more than a game or a season.
Many of the same sentiments Rivers had after the game were shared by Karl, who returned just in time to do his pre-game conference. As emotional as it all was, it was also a special moment that transcended competitiveness and competition.
“Doc and I will probably be a little tired on the bench,” Karl conceded before the matchup, “but it was a good day.”
Rivers missed shootaround Saturday morning to attend the funeral, and it was assistant coach Mike Woodson taking the podium before the game to address the media. By tip-off, both Rivers and Karl had returned to their respective teams.
Jamal Crawford said it’s a tough situation he’s never had to deal with personally.
“Usually when that happens, you get time off, so you’re usually with your family or you’re with the people involved’s family and you’re kind of away for a couple of days,” Crawford said. “So that had to be tough.”
Blake Griffin knows just how tough it can be.
“My rookie year right after All-Star, one of my best friends passed away,” Griffin said. “I remember flying straight from the All-Star Game with my parents back home to Oklahoma. Luckily, we played in Oklahoma City Tuesday after All-Star, and it was weird because it was the first time I wasn’t with the team and met the team in a city, and it was also weird because it was my first time being back in Oklahoma.
“You kind of have all these emotions. But I thought our team did a good job this morning in shootaround, Doc wasn’t there, just locking in. But it’s tough. I didn’t really know (Saunders) that well, but every time I saw him, he always spoke to me. He was always a great guy. The guys that I’ve talked to that have played for him said the same thing. So it’s unfortunate. Basketball lost a good one.”
