Cutting Doc Rivers a Little Bit of Slack

Last offseason, the Philadelphia 76ers fired Doc Rivers, not for losing to a better team in the Boston Celtics but for blowing a 3-2 lead and the team looking like they could not wait to go home in Game 7. Rivers was then hired at ESPN and it felt like the Rivers head coach nonsense was finally over.

Then the Bucks fired Adrian Griffin and hired Doc Rivers within 24 hours and once again, we were all forced to deal with more Doc. This son of a bitch COACHED THE ALL-STAR GAME as if he was the one who got the Bucks to the second-best record in the East instead of the guy he replaced.

I hate how many opportunities this man has been given to fail in the most spectacular ways and how he continues to find work across the league as opposed to new guys getting the opportunity to prove they can run an NBA squad.

JJ Redick went on First Take this week having had enough of the media treating Doc Rivers with kid gloves and allowing him to weasel his way out of any and all accountability.

JJ Redick calls out his former head coach Doc Rivers, who he will be replacing on ESPN/ABC’s NBA Finals coverage.

“I’ve seen the trend for years. The trend is always making excuses. Doc, we get it. Taking over a team in the middle of a season is hard… it’s always an excuse.… pic.twitter.com/NeTGnP1Suw

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 20, 2024

Feel you, dog. Doc Rivers is constantly going into front offices and selling them the monorail. And owners keep making the purchase but put a pin in that. We’ll get back to this.

Patrick Beverley—the newest member of the Milwaukee Bucks and certified teacher’s pet—responded to JJ immediately to defend his new boss and make sure he continues to get minutes.

What a good soldier.

Two types of people get advantages and promotions at work: people who work hard and are the most talented and Pat Bev’s who knock on the supervisor’s hotel door at 1am wearing lingerie, ready to tie their hair up in a bun when the door opens up.

But it wasn’t just meatrider Bev who responded but Austin Rivers, Doc’s weirdo son, also jumped off the top rope to defend a man who doesn’t need any more people defending him.

Austin rivers respectfully fried JJ redick lmao
pic.twitter.com/C0Rgfws7Rg

— ³⁴ (@GiannisWorld) February 20, 2024

This is all messy and strange and I don’t necessarily want to spend my Wednesday afternoon deep-diving into the ESPN media podcast geek wars.

I wanted to bring all of this up because I believe JJ Redick initially responded to this very specific interview quote from Doc Rivers over All-Star weekend where he essentially explains he didn’t want Milwaukee to fire Adrian Griffin and the job was sort of thrown at him unexpectedly.

Doc Rivers admits he was a bit confused when Milwaukee called him

“I told [Bucks ownership] ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this.’”

(🎥 @SiriusXMNBA )

pic.twitter.com/yOj04JgSYT

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) February 20, 2024

I think Doc Rivers is a pathological liar who constantly alters the truth, even if slightly, to make sure he is always the hero in every story he tells and at first glance, this story could easily just be in line with all of the other bullshit Doc has said to blame others for his own failures.

But I’m going to pretend as if Doc is telling the truth here where he claims the Bucks front office fired Adrian Griffin and gave him the job without Doc asking for it or even really wanting it. Now, that could be another excuse since the team is 3-7 with him as their head coach but there also could be a reality where he genuinely wanted to help and accidentally stole a man’s job.

And you can say if Doc really felt that bad then why did he accept the job and I’d say, I like writing and would accept any writing position with a $40 million contract. Doc likes coaching and getting $40 million to do so. Of course he didn’t turn it down.

We should, instead, be looking at the Bucks GM, Jon Horst, for GIVING DOC RIVERS MONEY TO COACH HIS TEAM. He traded his All-Defense guard for a 33-year Damian Lillard in the midst of a divorce. There are no tradable assets and not enough talent on this roster. Like, why is Khris Middleton still here? He hasn’t been a valuable player in two seasons.

People are mad at a head coach who loves coaching deciding to take money to coach instead of the fucking buffoon who gave him the money to do this.

Doc is for sure a sociopath but Jon Horst should have tomatoes thrown at him every time he leaves the house for investing in all of Doc’s snake oil.

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