Fans of the Milwaukee Bucks were met with a huge surprise on Tuesday afternoon when news broke that the team had parted ways with head coach Adrian Griffin not even a year after they hired him to replace Mike Budenholzer. In the aftermath of Griffin's firing, rumors began to swirl that the Bucks were strongly considering Doc Rivers to fill their head coaching opening. But then a mere few hours later, Milwaukee has reportedly already turned over the keys to Rivers, with news of the 2008 NBA champion's hiring being reported by CNN Sports.
It has been such a swift turn of events for the Bucks, if Rivers' reported hiring does indeed prove to be true. There's been a bit of doubt cast surrounding the legitimacy of the report. After all, a development of such magnitude tends to be reported by the two main titans of the industry, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic's Shams Charania.
“CNN breaking the Doc Rivers news??? Woj & Shams gotta be sick,” @TheDukeOfSports wrote. Wrote @VoidOfRoses, “It’s so funny that CNN broke the news of Doc Rivers being hired first.”
Article Continues BelowIt is a bit odd that the Bucks' reported hiring of Doc Rivers slipped through the cracks for both Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania. The situation becomes even weirder when one takes into account the fact that both Rivers and Wojnarowski work for the same company after the 2008 NBA champion took a job at the commentary desk on ESPN.
“How does Doc Rivers— an employee of ESPN not leak the news to Woj first?” wondered @kar__lee. Wrote @yadielp, “So if is true… Doc’s official hiring reported first by CNNSports AKA Turner while his last employer was ESPN is an #NBA thing! 😂 yes, I know Woj mentioned they were talking but nothing official.”
Just to add even more confusion to the proceedings, the Bucks had already named Joe Prunty as the interim head coach. It's perplexing that they would do such a thing if a Doc Rivers hiring was imminent. But alas, weirder things have happened in the NBA in the past, what with the association being the biggest soap opera there is.