Former [Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers](https://www.pennlive.com/sports/2023/05/philadelphia-76ers-fire-coach-doc-rivers.html) is calling for Democrats to make major changes after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
Rivers, who has been outspoken against Trump, joined Nicolle Wallace on [“The Best People” podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5F5OV1lMk8) and shared what is wrong with the Democratic Party at the moment.
“Well, the first thing we have to point towards is getting out of our comfort zone and thinking that if we keep doing the same thing that there are going to be different results,” Doc Rivers said. “That doesn’t happen. There needs to be change from the Democratic side. I don’t know what that change is. But I know the norm has not worked.”
While Rivers initially said that he doesn’t know what changes need to take place, he does have some ideas.
One of those is for Democrats to copy a strategy from Republicans and be more aligned on issues.
“You have to look at some of the things they do well. One of the things they do is they fall in line,” Rivers said. “If you listen to some of the things some of these guys said about Trump, and then when you hear them speak now, all they do is praise. They’re falling in line.”
Rivers added that Democrats also need to stop making excuses for why Donald Trump won the election and instead look in the mirror and analyze why more people did not turn out to vote for Kamala Harris.
“You have to take ownership of things," said Rivers, who is currently the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.
“We do it in sports all the time. I come in after a game, ‘We lost because.’ But then I say, ‘We lost, but we have to do these things differently if we want to win.’ We can’t say, ‘Well, we lost because they just made a lot of shots.’ Well then we have to force them to miss more shots,” Rivers said.
“You have to do something different. It’s so strange. We’re blaming the people who voted for Trump for why he won. And it makes no sense to me. It’s backwards.”
Moving forward, Rivers would like to see more emphasis put on getting people on the Democratic side to get out and vote. He added that Democrats must prove why it is important for people to vote and how voting for Democrats can benefit them.
“We didn’t get enough people out to vote. That’s one thing. So we have to figure out – first start with ourselves, how can we ignite ourselves, our side, to vote more. Because we have more people to vote," Rivers said. “We have to make them excited. We have to connect to them. And we’re not connecting.
“We complain about Black men – the majority of Black men did vote for Kamala. It’s just that there wasn’t a big majority. It wasn’t enough people. And so why is that? There’s a feel of hopelessness in our community, because I think a lot of Black men are saying now, ‘It doesn’t matter. Either side we’re not being helped.’ ... So there’s gotta be an answer. And we have to figure out how we can answer that question."