Milwaukee Bucks set to hire Marquette alumnus and NBA champ Doc Rivers as next head coach
The Milwaukee Bucks started the 2023-24 season with a first-time head coach tasked with not only handling a championship expectation – but delivering on it.
The organization now hopes to end this year with a veteran head coach capturing his second Larry O’Brien Trophy.
The Bucks are set to hire Marquette University alumnus Glenn “Doc” Rivers as the 18th head coach in franchise history (Joe Prunty has served as interim head coach twice). This will be Rivers’ 25th season as a head coach, for his fifth different organization.
Rivers was immediately targeted by Bucks ownership and general manager Jon Horst as Adrian Griffin's replacement shortly after Griffin was fired on Tuesday and the parties were working toward a deal throughout the day and evening. Even though Griffin's coaching staff was just rounded out with the hiring of Trevor Gleeson just after Christmas, Rivers will be able to add coaches to staff.
More: Doc Rivers could be the Milwaukee Bucks' next coach. Here's what to know about him.
Rivers, 62, was most recently working for ESPN as an analyst for game broadcasts, but he was fired after three seasons as Philadelphia’s head coach in May.
His head coaching career began in 1999 in Orlando, when he won coach of the year. He’s gone 1,097-763 (59%) in stops with the Magic, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers and 76ers.
The high point was 2008 championship with Boston as they went 66-16 in the regular season behind Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. That core returned to the Finals in 2010 but lost in seven games to the Los Angeles Lakers and fell to Miami in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals.
Traded to the Clippers prior to the 2013-14 season, Rivers made the playoffs in six of his seven years there. Fired in 2020 and immediately hired by the 76ers, he went to the playoffs from 2020-23.
But after that last conference finals trip with Boston, Rivers’ teams have been marred by disappointing playoff losses – most notably his 2020 Clippers team that blew a 3-1 conference semifinals lead to Denver. In 2021 his top-seeded 76es were upset in seven games in the conference semifinals to an Atlanta team that eventually lost to the Bucks in the conference finals.
Rivers has been in, or around, the NBA since the Hawks drafted him No. 31 out of Marquette in the 1983 draft. The Maywood, Illinois, native made one all-star team in a 13-year career that saw him play in two conference finals with New York in 1993 and San Antonio in 1995.
He played at Marquette from 1980-83 and was an All-American in 1982.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Bucks set to hire Doc Rivers as next head coach
