Attles recalled that he very nearly did not take up coaching with the Warriors. He’d been an assistant coach while also a player from 1968-70, but when the team struggled at the end of the 1969-70 season, the team’s former owner, Franklin Mieuli, approached Attles.
He called me in one day and said he wanted me to coach, and I turned it down three times, Attles said. And he said, ‘well, I can’t really go home yet until I receive the recognition to coach.’ And I said, ‘well, Mr. Mieuli, you’ll never go home again.’ Finally the next day he said, ‘well, OK, it’s too late, so go home and think about it.’ And finally talked to my wife, and she convinced me to do it. And I said I would do it for 30 games, and I coached about a long time.
James scored just 11 points, which is his fewest total in his last 58 playoff games. He’s now scored fewer than 15 points six times during the playoffs in his career, which is six more times than Michael Jordan ever had.
Even more surprising is the fact he went scoreless over the last 16 minutes of the game. Here are his total stats in the final 16:31: 0-of-4 from the field, 2 turnovers, 1 rebound, 1 assist and 0 points.
One more: this is the largest blown lead (21 points) of any James-led team in his postseason career. He was previously 49-0 when leading by 20 or more points.
Ironically, Rivers was part of those teams as he coached the Celtics when they had Paul Pierce and brought in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Although, to be fair, Garnett and Allen were brought in via trade. A fairer comparison would be LeBron James and Chris Bosh teaming up in Miami with Dwyane Wade.