The Milwaukee Bucks are one game away from completing the worst season the franchise has seen in over a decade. They’re 32-49 heading into the final game of the season, with the futures of all key personnel in the air. Giannis Antetokounmpo might finally get traded after over a year of rumors, while newly inducted Hall of Fame head coach Doc Rivers seems to be headed out as well.
Shams Charania of ESPN shared a report regarding Rivers on Tuesday, recounting an incident where Rivers allegedly asked the Bucks locker room to ‘Google him,’ in a reference to his accomplishments as a coach. Unfortunately, this comment was not received well by the players or fans.
Rivers has addressed the alleged comment in an interview on FDTV’s ‘Run It Back,’ hinting at the Bucks player who could’ve leaked the comment while explaining the context behind what he was trying to say.
“That was so out of context. I don’t want to get too deep into it. I wouldn’t say anything about the meeting because it’s none of their business. I hate the fact that players talk ‘allegedly,’ I think it’s more agents who talk than players, but that’s for another day.”
“You know there’s always one, though. When you have articles like this, it’s one guy talking, and it’s pretty obvious when you read the article who it is. But, it was taken out of context from what I was trying to say. I had a guy who kept talking about his stats, so I was basically saying the same thing: I have stats too. It was taken out of context from what was said.”
There is rampant speculation on the identity of the player Rivers is referring to, but nothing concrete has emerged just yet. Most fans believe he’s talking about scorer Cam Thomas, who was waived by the Bucks in March, less than a month after signing with the franchise on the buyout market.
Thomas averaged 10.7 points in 18 games with the Bucks, but the stats he might be referring to are the 24.0 points he averaged last season with the Nets. Given the Bucks definitely could’ve used Thomas’ offensive contributions to stay competitive this season, it’s not surprising to see people suggest he’s the disgruntled player leaking information.
Outside of Thomas, it’s hard to imagine who might be the one talking like this. Maybe it was Kyle Kuzma, who was reportedly questioning Rivers at the time the comment was made.
The only person with the credentials to comment on that is Giannis Antetokounmpo, who doesn’t need to say something like that to his coach to illustrate how good he is. If it isn’t Thomas, the only other potential stat-heavy player with the standing to comment on this is probably Kevin Porter Jr.
Rivers also confirmed in this interview that he won’t be retiring at the end of the season.
“I don’t want to say that I’m retiring because I know that I’m not going to completely retire… me, ownership, and the front office are all on the same page.”
With Rivers hoping to keep coaching and the Bucks locker room seemingly in need of a new voice, it seems the veteran coach will be looking for a new team in the summer. He could be an option to keep in place for a transitional season if the Bucks end up trading their core away, but it seems like the organization needs a hard reset this summer to kickstart the post-Antetokounmpo era.
