Report: Doc Rivers gave cringeworthy speech to Bucks before game

The speech, which was reportedly “not well-received” by the team, ended up going for naught. The Bucks then got demolished by the Celtics that night, losing by a final score of 108-81 (despite Boston being without starters Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Neemias Queta for the game).

The irony of Rivers’ comments is that he is known as one of the greatest playoff underachievers in NBA history. While Rivers has had a couple of quality coaching jobs over the years (e.g. leading the All-Star-less 2018-19 LA Clippers to 48 wins and pushing the full-strength Kevin Durant-era Golden State Warriors to six games in the playoffs), he has almost always had prolific talent at his disposal. Rivers led the Big Three-era Boston Celtics, the Lob City-era and the Kawhi Leonard-Paul George-era LA Clippers, and the Joel Embiid MVP-era Philadelphia 76ers … but only had one NBA title (and a whole bunch of postseason chokes) to show for it.

That said, the bigger takeaway here is that Rivers’ position as the head coach of the 31-47 Bucks is becoming increasingly untenable (with a previous report also suggesting that Rivers had lost the locker room). One possible replacement for Rivers has already emerged as it is beginning to look like a parting of ways between Rivers and the Bucks after the season is inevitable.