Doc Rivers and Nets’ Jacque Vaughn reflect on the importance of baseball’s Jackie Robinson Day ahead of Game 1

Major League Baseball celebrated Jackie Robinson’s legacy Saturday on the 76th anniversary since the fall of baseball’s color barrier.

Jackie Robinson Day also has special meaning to 76ers coach Doc Rivers and, especially, Brooklyn Nets coach Jacque Vaughn, two of the NBA’s 15 Black head coaches. The Sixers rolled to a 121-101 victory over the Nets at the Wells Fargo Center in Game 1 of the team first-round series, but before the game, both coaches touched on Robinson’s legacy.

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For Vaughn, the day was special for myriad reasons.

“Pretty incredible for that debut to happen for the Brooklyn Dodgers; I see the connection there,” Vaughn said of Robinson breaking the color barrier. “And then the other connection: Jackie Robinson went to John Muir High School [in Pasadena, Calif.] — the same high school I graduated from. So, on this day to have two African American coaches from different areas as former players, Doc has paved the way for me to sit here because of his success and his ability to carry himself in a way that people appreciate and to be a father. That means a lot.

“So Jackie Robinson Day is extremely important because of his sacrifice for me to be here in a setting like this today.”

Rivers coached Vaughn during Vaughn’s playing days with the Orlando Magic. The former point guard considers the Sixers coach a mentor.

“I’ve seen it for so many years, I saw it, you know, playing for him, so I got that aspect of it,” Vaughn said. “And then when I went on to start this as a career, I was able to see, ‘Well this is a guy that looks like me, played a position like me, was able to communicate with a team and he’s done it at various places. It can be done.’”

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At John Muir, there was an understanding of Robinson’s impact. Vaughn felt it walking the halls and seeing the pictures. He also understood it while playing various times at Jackie Robinson Park.

“A lot of reminders, and I think as I got older, you learn the significance and what he had to go through and that we’ve come a long way, but we’ve still got some ways to go,” Vaughn said. “So the progress and to be somehow connected on a day like today. I get to do this for a living. Man, pretty cool.”

While playing for the New York Knicks, Rivers lived near Robinson’s widow, Rachel Robinson, in Connecticut. He called Jackie Robinson a pioneer.

“I still don’t think we all know the story of what he actually had to go through,” Rivers said. “But he had to go through a lot.”

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The Sixers coach tried to avoid politics on Saturday because it was a game day. But he loves that Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day.

“But we do live in a time where it just seems like we’re trying not to teach history anymore,” Rivers said. “You can’t whitewash history. You have to teach it for us to be better people, a better country. I think baseball has done that.

“I think basketball has done that as well. Sports has done that a lot. So I think it’s just important that we do study history.”