Doc Rivers, Gregg Popovich and Doug Collins are candidates to replace Mike Krzyzewski as head coach of the United States' national basketball team.

“Honestly, I think that’s a hard job for an NBA coach,” said Rivers. “First of all, hopefully you’re playing in June, and college coaches are done in March. They have a lot more time to prepare.

“The biggest difference for a college coach is that the seven players that they don’t [start] can never get back at them. If I did become the coach, the seven guys I didn’t play, I would just have to prepare when we play them in the regular season — they are going to try to score 50 on me. You’ve just got to endure that.”

Rivers believes Larry Brown was aversely affected by coaching the United States in 2004 because players who didn't start or received limited playing time took it out on him when they next played the Pistons.