Doc Rivers Is Getting Fired Again. He’s The Worst Coach In Modern NBA History.
Doc Rivers Is Getting Fired Again. He's The Worst Coach In Modern NBA History.
On March 31, 2026, Doc Rivers was officially voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Class of 2026. A lifetime achievement honor for one of the most accomplished coaches in NBA history.
Four days later, multiple sources reported that several Bucks players have lost confidence in Rivers’ coaching style. His team is 30-46. The expectation around the league, according to NBA insider Kurt Helin, is that he’ll be fired within weeks.
Both of those things are happening at the same time. And if you know anything about Doc Rivers, neither one is surprising.
The One Time It Worked
Rivers won a championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008. Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo. They beat the Lakers in six games. The clinching Game 6 was a 39-point blowout, the largest margin of victory in a championship-clinching game in NBA history. Pierce won Finals MVP.
He went back to the Finals in 2010, held a 3-2 lead over the Lakers, and lost Game 7. He hasn’t been back since.
The List
The collapses didn’t start in LA or Philadelphia. They started in Orlando.
In 2003, Rivers was coaching the Magic. They were the eighth seed. Tracy McGrady scored 43, 46, 29, and 27 points through the first four games of their first-round series against the top-seeded Detroit Pistons. The Magic went up 3-1. After Game 4, McGrady famously told reporters it felt good to be heading to the second round.
The Pistons won Game 5 by 31 points. They won Game 6 by 15. They won Game 7 by 15. Orlando never made the second round.
In 2015, Rivers was coaching the LA Clippers. Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan. They had the third seed in the West and a 3-1 series lead over the Houston Rockets in the conference semifinals. In Game 6, the Clippers led by 19 points in the third quarter. Houston outscored them 51-20 the rest of the way. Josh Smith scored 14 of his 19 in the fourth quarter. Corey Brewer came off the bench and wouldn’t miss. James Harden was sitting down.
Game 7 in Houston: Rockets won 113-100. The Clippers never made the conference finals under Rivers.
In 2020, Rivers was still coaching the Clippers. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George this time. They led the Denver Nuggets 3-1 in the Western Conference semifinals inside the Orlando bubble. They blew double-digit leads in each of the last three games. In Game 7, Nikola Jokic posted a triple-double and Jamal Murray scored 40 points. Leonard and George combined for 24 points on 10-of-38 shooting. They missed all 11 of their fourth-quarter attempts. Nuggets won 104-89.
Rivers was fired. His explanation: “They wanted to go home more than they wanted to win.”
Three years later, he was coaching the Philadelphia 76ers. Joel Embiid had just won MVP. The Sixers held a 3-2 lead over the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. In Game 7, Jayson Tatum scored 51 points, a Game 7 record. The Sixers scored 10 points in the third quarter, tied for the fewest in a Game 7 quarter in the shot clock era. Embiid finished with 15 points on 5-of-18 shooting. James Harden had 9 on 3-of-11. Final score: Celtics 112, Sixers 88.
Rivers was fired again.
The Numbers
Three blown 3-1 series leads. No other coach in NBA history has blown more than one. Rivers has done it three times.
His Game 7 record is 6-10. Ten Game 7 losses. The most by any coach in NBA history. No other coach has more than five.
Since 2015, Rivers is 0-9 in potential series-clinching games in the second round. Zero for nine. Over an 11-year stretch, every time one of his teams has had a chance to put a second-round opponent away, they have failed.
Milwaukee
On January 23, 2024, the Milwaukee Bucks fired head coach Adrian Griffin. The team was 30-13, the second-best record in the NBA. They hired Doc Rivers.
Rivers went 17-19 to finish the season. The Bucks dropped from second in the East to third. They lost to the Indiana Pacers in the first round.
The following season, Rivers had a full offseason to implement his system. The Bucks went 48-34, earned the sixth seed, and drew the Pacers again. They lost again, this time in five games. Damian Lillard tore his Achilles in Game 4. The Bucks waived him that summer.
This season, without Lillard and with Giannis Antetokounmpo missing 29 games to injury, the Bucks are 30-46. Since Rivers took over from Griffin, Milwaukee’s combined record is 95-99. He inherited a team that was 30-13 and has a losing record since.
Jae Crowder, who played on the team before the coaching change, put it simply: “We were 30-13 btw.”
The Bucks front office reportedly regrets the hire.
“I’ve Never Come Up Short”
In October 2024, Rivers sat down with The Athletic’s Eric Nehm and addressed the growing criticism head-on.
“I’ve never come up short, in my opinion,” he said.
When asked about the three blown 3-1 series leads, he told Andscape: “I don’t get enough credit for getting the three wins.”
When asked about the Clippers’ collapse in the bubble, he blamed the players.
The Bucks are 30-46. His players have reportedly lost confidence in him. The expectation around the league is that he’ll be fired before the season ends. And in August, he’ll walk into Springfield, Massachusetts, and be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as one of the greatest coaches the game has ever seen.
Kurt Helin wrote it best: “It’s going to be weird when Doc Rivers is elected to the Hall of Fame one week and let go a couple of weeks later.”
Doc Rivers has coached for over a quarter century across five franchises. He has one championship, three blown 3-1 series leads, more Game 7 losses than any coach in history, two firings, and now a team that’s 30-46 with players who don’t believe in him. He’s also a Hall of Famer.
All of it is true. All of it at the same time.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
