Bucks News: Doc Rivers Addresses Controversial Post-Celtics Postseason Performances

The former NBA champ has had some postseason issues since his Boston days.

Oct 17, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers reacts during the first half against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers was brought in to serve as a stabilizing force for a veteran-heavy squad during a fraught 2023-24 season. His addition didn't stop Milwaukee from once again getting upset in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, though in fairness the team was without All-Stars Giannis Antetokounmpo (for all six games) and Damian Lillard (for two).

The 63-year-old Rivers is a basketball lifer. Since hanging up his sneakers as a player in 1996 (he was a one-time All-Star, in 1988 with the Atlanta Hawks), he has coached five franchises across 1,896 regular season contests and 25-and-a-half seasons. The half-season, of course, was last year, when Rivers ditched the broadcast both to take over for Adrian Griffin after his midseason firing. Nehm notes that Rivers' contract is slated to pay him approximately $40 million through the 2026-27 season.

“I’m literally excited about the team,” Rivers told Nehm. “I am so f—— engaged. I think we got the right group, I just do. And you know, again, as Bill Belichick said, we’re either going to land this f—— plane or we’re going to have a crash landing.

The former NBA champ has had some postseason issues since his Boston days. Though Rivers coached the Celtics to the 2008 title and a seven-game NBA Finals appearance in 2010, he has yet to return to that promised land — despite leading several franchises loaded with Hall of Famers. Rivers has posted a middling 113-108 playoff record overall across the course of his coaching career, and has botched a whopping three 3-1 series leads in that span.

“If you look at my path since leaving Boston, I’ve intentionally put myself in win-or-failure positions, knowing that in a lot of cases that if we fail, it’s on me,” Rivers said. “But if I’ve learned anything from my journey with Boston and how long it took me as a coach to get there, I want that position more than the, ‘Well, we can be fifth seed if some things go right’ position.”

“But I’ve never come up short, in my opinion,” Rivers said. “Come up short? What does that mean? Like, we didn’t win a title? I go back in Philly. I took that job after we lost in the first round 4-0 (to the Celtics in 2020 under Brett Brown). The next year, we win the East in the regular season. All right. We are one game away from the Eastern [Finals]."

In 2021, the top-seeded Sixers were upset by the fifth-seeded Atlanta Hawks in their East semifinal series when then-All-Star Ben Simmons forgot how to shoot or score. Now on the Brooklyn Nets, he has yet to remember. The Bucks went on to beat the Hawks in the East Finals, en route to their first championship in 50 years.

"So there’s times where I’m like we’re being evaluated on a different standard. And the great news is I’ve created that standard," Rivers said.

Rivers went on to counter the narrative of his uneven playoff history with some stats of his own.

“Listen, I’m eighth in wins. I’m fourth in playoff wins,” Rivers said. “My dad used to say something, ‘If somebody said something you would never listen to, why would you ever pay attention to it?’ You know what I mean?

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