Great insightful article!
Two points really stood out for me:
1. How important it was for a young player to have the coach's confidence in his ability
2. When Rivers was at his lowest point the assistant coaches put the hard word on him, rather than going soft, and to Rivers' credit, it worked.
On the first point, that's a good argument for coaches giving young players a descent chance to prove themselves and avoid reactionary mass axing of players after a poor performance. Show confidence in the players ability to bounce back...like, hopefully, today! Obviously, serial offenders are a different matter (yes Brad, I'm looking at you).