Doc Rivers Reportedly Played The "Google Me" Card To Deflect Blame During A Tense Team Meeting As The Bucks Season Was Falling Apart
Tanner Pearson/Clarkson Creative. Getty Images.I know we're all sick and tired of the Giannis/Bucks drama until something actually happens, but sometimes we get new nuggets that simply cannot be ignored. Earlier today Shams put out a rather lengthy deep dive into the current drama surrounding both Giannis and his employer, and for the most part a lot of it was what we already knew.
Given his history with this topic, you're out of your mind if you think Shams isn't going to squeeze every last drop out of this story, even if the majority of his "updates" aren't even actual updates. The game is the game, as they say.
But there was one part in particular that was a new nugget of information, and frankly it's very funny
I'm sorry, but Doc playing the "Google me" card is laugh out loud funny when thinking about the Bucks' current situation. As if none of this is his fault, because of his resume. I get it, the man is about to go into the Hall of Fame, he won the 2008 title, all of those things are great. But there are also a handful of not so great things when it comes to Doc's coaching resume that I wouldn't be quick to brag about. There are a whole lot of blown 3-1 leads and underachieving seasons on that resume as well, and even though I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Doc for that 2008 season, the facts are the facts. He's a worthy HOFer and all that, but going with that angle doesn't exactly play the way I'm sure Doc thought it did in his head.
It's also not that surprising to hear Doc have that stance, because you have to remember one of the things about Doc Rivers is he's always going to be quick to shift the blame. Remember JJ Redick's rant all the way back in checks notes 2024 about this very thing?
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It'd be one thing if JJ were doing the typical First Take bit where you just spew out bullshit. Unfortunately for Doc, he's a repeat offender at this very thing
When it came to the 2025-26 Bucks, it was more of the same approach. This was just a week ago!
“Since I’ve been here, I haven’t had a healthy stretch and it’s been your key guys. It’s been Giannis. It’s been Dame [Lillard] … This year, having only one quote-unquote star, every other team has two and three. We needed health. We were thin … All the talk [around Giannis] and all that stuff probably didn’t help either.”
You don't exactly see a whole lot of accountability in that quote, now do you?
Little did I know the Bucks are the only team in the NBA without a loaded roster or that they're the only team who had injuries this year that couldn't find ways to win. Oh, that's not the case? There are plenty of teams that have had tons of injuries and still found ways to be pretty good? How could that be!
In reality, the team probably shouldn't have fired Adrian Griffin, considering he was 30-13 or some shit when he got canned. I'm sure there were internal reasons for it and whatnot, but going from that situation to Doc never made sense, and it's no surprise that since Day 1, things have been a bit of a disaster. Now their books are cooked given what they chose to do with Dame's contract, they don't have a ton of draft capital, they probably need to fire their coach, and Giannis is about to be traded. Oh, and you also now have some within the Bucks media doing the whole "they should call Brad Stevens/Sam Presti to come save them" routine, which is never a great sign