A bit of a ruckus ensued on social media after CNN Sports broke the news of the Milwaukee Bucks' official hiring of Doc Rivers as the team's new head coach. However, the situation was weird as CNN Sports isn't exactly known for breaking major NBA developments. Shortly after CNN Sports' report made the rounds, Bill Reiter of CBS Sports posted a retraction tweet of sorts, saying that “there is no agreement in place” between the Bucks and “any potential job candidate”, and that any report saying that Rivers is in line to be the team's newest head coach is “not true”.

Nonetheless, seeing as CNN Sports' report spread like wildfire, with outlets such as TNT Sports and Bleacher Report giving the report a bigger platform, many thought that the Bucks' deal with Rivers was as good as done. Los Angeles Lakers legend and avid tweeter Magic Johnson was one of those who already accepted the report as the truth, with the five-time NBA champion jumping the gun and congratulating his point guard contemporary.

“I want to congratulate my friend, and one of the best to ever coach in the NBA, Doc Rivers for accepting the Milwaukee Bucks head coaching job! Doc is a World Champion so he will demand that the Bucks play hard, play good defense, and play well together,” Johnson wrote on his official Twitter (X) account.

While nothing is official yet, there are plenty of indicators that the Bucks, sooner than later, would formally name Doc Rivers as the team's new head coach. Magic Johnson may have gotten ahead of himself, but perhaps that tweet of his would become officially applicable in a few days' time.

It's definitely an interesting gambit for the Bucks to make a seismic change in the middle of the season, especially when they're currently the second seed in the Eastern Conference with a 30-13 record. It's difficult to argue that the idea behind hiring Rivers is for them to excel in the postseason, as Rivers' teams have tended to underperform in the playoffs. (See 2015 and 2020 Clippers, 2021 76ers.)

But Doc Rivers is a figure who commands respect, and perhaps that's what Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks seek from their head coach as they try to reclaim championship heights.