JJ Redick Blasts Milwaukee Bucks Coach Doc Rivers: “There’s Never Accountability With That Guy” - Page 16
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Doc Rivers is only 10 games into his tenure as the Milwaukee Bucks head coach, and absolutely no one is chalking up their record to growing pains.
In Doc’s era, the team is 3-7, and not only has he but also Giannis Antetokounmpo spoken about their hopes for the season.
Rivers admits that things haven’t gone as well as planned, and the adjustment period has been much more difficult than anticipated.
“It was going to be hard regardless, but taking a job when you’re about to go on the toughest road trip of the season is not the smartest decision. I even (asked the team), ‘Can we wait till All-Star Break?’ It would’ve been a lot nicer, he said at All-Star media day. “The organization felt strongly that a change needed to be made defensively and things like that, and that’s what we’re doing. The problem is, while you’re doing that, you’re in the middle of the season on the toughest trip that you’re on. And then, three or four of those games, two of your key players are out. So, it is what it is.”
Rivers didn’t exactly take any ownership of the team’s woes, and one of his own former players, JJ Redick, has had enough.
The retired player and current ESPN sports analyst ripped Rivers, his coach from 2013-17, while they were both a part of the Clippers.
“I’ve seen the trend for years; the trend is always making excuses,” Redick said on Tuesday’s episode of First Take. “Doc, we get it. Taking over a team in the middle of the season is hard… just like getting traded in the middle of the season is hard for a player. We get it. But it’s always an excuse. It’s always throwing your team under the bus.”
Redick also brought up the last game the Bucks played before the All-Star break, against the Grizzlies, where they lost 113-110 to a Grizzlies team that didn’t even play any of his starters. At the time, Rivers blamed his team, saying, “We had some guys here, we had some guys in Cabo.”
“They lose to Memphis, ‘oh it’s his players’ fault,'” Redick said. “Memphis was playing G League guys and two-way guys.”
Redick then explained that when things do go as planned, he’s quick to take credit, like when he told the media over the weekend that he was consulted by the Los Angeles Clippers amid the James Harden trade.
“Then you look at his quotes over the weekend; now he wants to take credit for the James Harden trade to the Clippers working out?” Redick said. “He wants credit for that? There’s never accountability with that guy.”
See how social media is reacting to Redick ripping Rivers for his coaching prowess below.
