Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers, the NBA’s winningest active coach and someone ranking sixth on the league’s all-time victory list, hinted Tuesday that he might consider giving up his role on the sideline when this tumultuous Bucks season ends.
Rivers’ reason: grandkids.
And put simply, he sounds like someone who wants to spent more time with them.
“I won’t answer that, but I have grandkids that I want to see,” Rivers told reporters when asked before the Bucks’ game in Brooklyn about his future. “I’ll put it that way. I’ll let you figure it out from there.”
The 64-year-old Rivers is going into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame this summer. Only Gregg Popovich, Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry Sloan and Pat Riley have more coaching wins than Rivers — who won the NBA title as a coach with Boston in 2008.
Milwaukee came into the season with championship aspirations, built again around perennial All-Star and former MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and further bolstered by the acquisition of Myles Turner in free agency last summer. But injuries doomed Milwaukee; the Bucks started 8-5, then lost seven consecutive games to fall under .500 and that’s where they stayed the rest of the way.
They haven’t been a top-eight team in the Eastern Conference since mid-November, wound up fielding trade offers for Antetokounmpo in February — ultimately deciding to keep him, at least for now — and now are embroiled in a war of words with their best player. He says he wants to play even though the Bucks are out of the playoff picture; the team has kept him out citing injuries.
Antetokounmpo has appeared in 36 games this season, by far the fewest of his 13-year career. The constant speculation about his future in Milwaukee has grated on Rivers for some time, prompting him to say last week that it has been bothersome to incessantly have to deal with questions about the relationship between Antetokounmpo and the franchise.
“The tough part about all this is I’m in the middle when I have nothing to do with it,” Rivers said Friday. “Coaches don’t decide any of this. But, the problem with our league is the coaches are the ones sitting out front and we have to sit here and answer this stuff. And I think there are two sides to this. I will tell you that.”
Antetokounmpo’s future with the team is certain to be a major topic in the offseason. And now, Rivers’ will be as well.
He sounded somewhat reflective last week when formally announced as a Hall inductee.
“Without the players that I’ve coached, without the coaches that I’ve coached with, I wouldn’t be here,” Rivers said when announced as part of this year’s Hall class. “None of us live in isolation. We all live and breathe with other people, and other people help us get to places we are.”
Rivers joined the Bucks midway through the 2023-24 season. He has a number of interests outside of coaching, would likely be a sought-after broadcaster — he’s done TV work before — if he steps down from coaching, and indicated that it’s difficult to not be present around young grandchildren.
“I have seven grandkids now and they’re all 8 years and under,” Rivers said. “And it kills me every time I miss grandparents’ day with each one of them in school. And it’s probably time to go see them more. So, I’ll let you figure out the rest.”
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