Doc Rivers lost a coaching job because the Sixers wanted Nick Nurse. He got a new job because Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t.
The Milwaukee Bucks officially hired Rivers as their new head coach, replacing Adrian Griffin, who was fired after just 43 games. He reportedly lost the Bucks locker room, but specifically lost the support of star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
When the Bucks originally hired Griffin, he was reportedly the Greek Freak’s top choice to lead the Bucks. But according to a report from Marc Stein, Antetokounmpo didn’t want Griffin as much as he simply didn’t want to be coached by Nick Nurse, who was the team’s top choice.
“League sources say now that the desire to play for Griffin is better described as a determination to play for someone other than Nick Nurse,” Stein wrote on his Substack.
Enter Rivers, who was fired by the Philadelphia 76ers and replaced by Nurse.
So first, Nurse became available when he and the Raptors parted ways. The Bucks, eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, hesitated to sign Nurse because of Antetokounmpo’s reservations. Nurse’s availability then inspired the Sixers to cut ties with Rivers, their coach for the past three seasons, after their second-round loss. Then, Milwaukee hired Griffin, primarily because he wasn’t Nurse, which eventually led to Rivers’ next head-coaching job.
It’s reminiscent of the moves of Mike Fratello and Lenny Wilkens in 1993. Wilkens left the Cleveland Cavaliers after seven years for the Atlanta Hawks, while the Cavs replaced him with Fratello, who’d finished a seven-year run for the Hawks three years earlier. Both coaches thrived in their new homes, with Wilkens lasting seven years and Fratello six.
With Milwaukee in second place and Philadelphia in third in the East, the two coaches are on track to match up in the second round of the playoffs. It should be quite a series.
But after the Bucks went all-in with their blockbuster deal for Damian Lillard, they’re under more pressure to win. And once again, Nurse may have a big role in determining Rivers’ NBA future.
