One day after the Super Bowl — which none of his teams ever even got into, much less won — Marty Schottenheimer died at the age of 77 due to complications from Alzheimer's disease.
In 21 seasons as head coach of the Browns, Chiefs, Redskins (now of course the "Football Team") and Chargers, Schottenheimer's teams compiled a sorry 5-13 record in the playoffs, contrasting with a 327-200 mark in the regular season that included only one finish of worse than 7-9 — 2003, when his Chargers went 4-12 (by contrast, Andy Reid, who has done more than his share of choking in the postseason, is 17-15 therein).
Yet apparently, Schottenheimer has a secret admirer in the NBA: Doc Rivers.
Rivers capped off the 10th postseason choke of his NBA head coaching career on Sunday night when his team, the Sixers, lost 103-96 at home to the Atlanta Hawks as a 7-point favorite — this after having blown an 18-point late-second-quarter lead in Game 4 and a 26-point mid-third-quarter lead in Game 5. The Sixers also went 1-3 at home in the series.
The other nine were as follows:
2004-05 — The Celtics, whom Rivers coached, lost Game 7 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at home to the Pacers.
2008-09 — The Celtics were up 3-2 on the Magic in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and lost the series in seven.
2009-10 — The Celtics were up 3-2 on the Lakers in the NBA Finals, and lost the series (true, both Games 6 and 7 were in Los Angeles — but the Celtics had won at the Staples Center in Game 2).
2011-12 — Up 3-2 on the Heat and with Game 6 at home in the Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics get blown out by 19 points, then followed that up with a 13-point loss at Miami in Game 7.
2013-14 — The Clippers, whom Rivers now coached, blew a 15-point lead at Oklahoma City in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals, then threw themselves a pity party by coming home and losing Game 6 — and with it the series.
2014-15 — The Clippers blew a 3-1 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series against the Rockets, losing the series in seven.
2015-16 — After winning the first two games of their Western Conference quarterfinal series against the Trail Blazers, the Clippers reeled off four straight losses and lost the series in six.
2016-17 — The Clippers lost Game 7 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series at home to the Jazz.
2019-20 — The Clippers blew a 3-1 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series against the Nuggets.
The only "blemish" on Rivers' otherwise perfect record of choking was when his Celtics won the NBA title in 2007-08 — and with a 66-16 regular-season record that was seven games better than that of the second-best team (Detroit), even Rivers couldn't choke a championship away that year.
It could be worse for Doc Rivers. He
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