Stephen A. Smith makes major claim about Doc Rivers' career

Over two-and-a-half decades on the sidelines may be just about enough for Doc Rivers.

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith appeared Thursday on SiriusXM’s “Mad Dog Sports Radio.” During the show, Smith made a major claim about the Milwaukee Bucks head coach Rivers — that Rivers will be retiring after this season.

“It’s not gonna be Doc Rivers [coaching the Bucks next year] because Doc Rivers is gonna retire at the end of this season,” said Smith, per Awful Announcing. “Doc Rivers has been coaching for close to 25 years, this is it for him. He’s gonna step away.”

Rivers is now 64 years old and is actually in his 27th season as an NBA head coach. In addition to the Bucks, he previously coached the Orlando Magic, the Boston Celtics, the LA Clippers and the Philadelphia 76ers. Rivers has compiled a career head coaching record of 1,188-851 (.583) and won an NBA title in 2008 with the Celtics.

But Rivers’ time with the Bucks has been a nightmare ever since he took over in 2024. Rivers has gone just 91-88 (.508) in Milwaukee and now has the team sitting outside the play-in tournament at 26-35 this season. On top of that, a failure to qualify for the postseason would almost guarantee that the team trades away superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo in the summer.

While Rivers is under contract through 2026-27, he famously does not care for rebuilds and effectively forced his way to the Clippers in 2013 after his previous team, the Celtics, started to tear it down. Choosing to retire after the season would allow Rivers to leave Milwaukee with some dignity, and the Bucks may already have a replacement in mind for him as well.