Bucks' rival exec had surprising involvement in Doc Rivers hiring

Boston Celtics majority owner Wyc Grousbeck this week revealed that he played a part in the Milwaukee Bucks’ recent hiring of Doc Rivers.

Grousbeck on Friday appeared on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” where he spoke openly about the Bucks contacting him about Rivers. The Celtics team governor was apparently on the list of reference calls the Bucks made before locking in on Rivers as their midseason coaching replacement for Adrian Griffin.

“I love Doc,” Grousbeck said, via Souichi Terada of MassLive. “I got a reference call on Doc from the Bucks. Truthfully, I made a truthful statement, of course. I said we would not have won it in 2008 without Doc. He took that team, molded it together and led the way. He had a ton to do with the championship, and he’s always going to be very special. Very special friend of mine.”

Rivers made his mark on the Celtics organization when he led the franchise to the 2008 NBA title. It’s no surprise that Grousbeck would give Rivers a quality assessment when Milwaukee came calling.

However, the Bucks and Celtics are arguably the two biggest contenders in the Eastern Conference. Asking your top rival if you should hire someone as head coach is a bold move to say the least. Rivers hasn’t even been involved with the Celtics since the 2012-13 season.

Rivers has seen his reputation take a major hit since the aforementioned Celtics championship run. The 62-year-old coach has had a shoddy playoff track record over the last decade, which is a big reason why he ended up a free agent coach this season in the first place.

The Bucks haven’t looked much better since Rivers took the reins in late January. The team is 3-7 over their first 10 games with their new coach. It hasn’t even been a month yet and Rivers has already resorted to calling out his Bucks roster.