Doc Rivers has surprising admission about Bucks firing Adrian Griffin
Doc Rivers looks ahead. Photo Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA Today Sports
Doc Rivers continues to sound like a man who regrets about taking the Milwaukee Bucks head coaching job in the middle of the season.
Rivers made some interesting comments during a recent appearance on Sirius XM NBA Radio’s “The Starting Lineup.”
The 62-year-old coach was asked to discuss his conversation with the Bucks’ brain trust in the lead-up to Rivers’ eventual hiring last month to replace Adrian Griffin. Rivers admitted that he openly questioned the Bucks ownership’s decision but went with it anyway.
“I’ll be honest. I told our owners when they called, I said, ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this,'” Rivers said, referring to the decision to fire Griffin. “One of the things they said was, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter. We’ve done it now and we want you.’ So, that was a tough one. That’s where you have the hesitation.”
“I told [Bucks ownership] ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this.’”
Bucks HC Doc Rivers tells @TheFrankIsola & Ryan McDonough about his conversation with ownership after Adrian Griffin was let go
Hear more great interviews on the new @SiriusXM App! https://t.co/Siy1ymsQrr pic.twitter.com/B6GKJu9HVT
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) February 20, 2024
It’s hard to imagine Rivers making similar comments if the Bucks had been winning since he arrived. It’s also not the first time Rivers has questioned the circumstances surrounding the Bucks’ decision to hire him.
The Bucks coach recently claimed that the team should not have rushed him into the job ahead of what Rivers believed to be the team’s “toughest road trip of the season.”
Milwaukee has gone 3-7 in Rivers’ first 10 games as head coach. The stretch includes a stunning loss to the bottom-feeding Portland Trail Blazers and a 26-point blowout against a Jimmy Butler-less Miami Heat squad.
The Bucks were 30-13 and ranked second in the East before Griffin was fired to make way for Rivers. They’ve since fallen to third place and are now 8.5 games behind the No. 1 seed Boston Celtics.