Nobody is under any illusions that the NBA — just like every other professional sport — isn’t a cutthroat business.
People are hired and fired on a whim. Players with non-guaranteed contracts are snipped from rosters like loose ends. Folks are traded at a moment’s notice and have their entire lives uprooted. It’s always been that way.
But, man. There’s something about the Doc Rivers situation with the Milwaukee Bucks that just isn’t sitting right with me.
Rivers has officially been hired as the Bucks head coach despite our collective doubt of CNN Sports’ reporting (which is a thing, I guess?).
It’s all kind of unbelievable, but it’s real. Just a day after the Bucks fired Adrian Griffin, here the team is hiring Doc Rivers. The two sides are already reportedly working on putting together his new coaching staff, according to Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes.
Doc Rivers and Bucks general manager Jon Horst will collaboratively work together on coaching staff personnel with the expectation of adding to an already great group of coaches the organization values, sources say. https://t.co/gYLYPnUjL1
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) January 24, 2024
This is all just kind of strange, isn’t it? Things are happening so fast. One day, one coach is in Milwaukee. The next day there’s a new one. You’re probably asking yourself “How in the world is that possible?”
Well, as it turns out, the Bucks have been in contact with Rivers for quite some time. Maybe not in a formal interview process, but Milwaukee has been getting insight on how he’d run the team for at least a month.
According to The Athletic, Rivers was hired by the Bucks as a consultant for Griffin’s staff in December. A month later, he’s hired.
“League sources say Doc Rivers, who is an ESPN analyst after getting fired by the Philadelphia 76ers last May, began to serve as an informal consultant to Griffin at the behest of the Bucks. One month later, multiple sources briefed on the matter now indicate that Rivers is the serious leader for the now-vacant position and the preferred choice of key stakeholders.”
Look, we can’t possibly know that the Bucks brought Rivers on as a consultant ultimately to push Griffin out of the way. But there’s no debating that that’s what it looks like. The optics look terrible here.
Fans called the Bucks out after seeing this.