Doc Rivers coached Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee across three seasons. Now that the job is over, he is saying the quiet part out loud, and he is not softening any of it.
On “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” posted Thursday, Rivers called his former superstar a difficult guy to coach. He praised his passing, then questioned his basketball IQ in the same breath.
He’s not easy. He plays at this crazy downhill pace. He’s really a difficult guy. He has this great passing ability, but he doesn’t necessarily have a super-high IQ at the same time.
Doc Rivers on “The Bill Simmons Podcast”
Rivers said Giannis has basically one way of playing: downhill, force it, every play. He wished Giannis had learned to execute better, and said that went for practice and shootarounds too, not just games.
He also pulled the curtain back on the exit. Rivers said Giannis wanted out of Milwaukee but did not want to be the bad guy who asked for a trade, so he waited for the front office to make the call first.
The timing is doing some talking too. Giannis is in Miami now, the Heat are 3 and 6, and he put up 20 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists in a 20 point loss at Golden State on Thursday night. Rivers, who stepped down in April and now works as an NBC analyst, said Giannis landed with the right coach for the fix: Erik Spoelstra, who he called as good as there is at execution.
Fair scouting report from the man who was in the huddles, or a coach rewriting why Milwaukee fell apart? Either way the comments are out there now, and Giannis has not answered them yet.
See also: Jalen Brunson made his acting debut on Law & Order: SVU and Wembanyama put up a stat line nobody has matched since 1974.