Despite a record of 1-2 since taking the job mid-season, the Bucks 25-point comeback win over the Mavericks Saturday, combined with the Lakers beating the Knicks, means Doc Rivers will coach the Eastern Conference in the All-Star Game.
Rivers understands how this looks and said the money he gets for doing it, plus the All-Star Game ring, will be given to fired Bucks coach Adrian Griffin, who coached this team to the second-best record in the East.
“It’s ridiculously bad. It really is,” Rivers said, via the Associated Press. “Well, Adrian’s going to get some money, that’s for sure. And a ring. It’s one of these quirky things. I think there should be a rule somehow that someone else does it, other than me. Maybe I’ll send my staff, and I’ll go on vacation.”
The All-Star Game coaching job is given to the coach of the team with the best record in the conference as of this Sunday (the West is still up in the air). However, a coach cannot go two years in a row. Boston has the best record in the East, but Joe Mazzulla coached the game last year, so it falls to second place and that is the Milwaukee Bucks, where Rivers has just taken over the job.
This situation has happened once before, when David Blatt was fired from the first-place Cleveland Cavaliers on Jan. 21, 2016, and Tyronn Lue took his place. Lue coached that All-Star Game and eventually led those Cavaliers to a 3-1 comeback in the NBA Finals and a ring.
This is the fourth time Rivers will have coached the All-Star Game.
The All-Star Game takes place Sunday, Feb. 18, at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Doc Rivers will be there and not golfing in a warm-weather city somewhere. The starters and reserves for that game have been announced and include two Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.
