Everyone in the basketball world seems to be waiting for the Milwaukee Bucks to officially hire Doc Rivers. After firing Adrian Griffin 43 games into his stint with the team, reports immediately began to pop up indicating Rivers is the frontrunner to fill the vacancy.
Whether or not Rivers actually gets the job remains to be seen, but in a pretty strange turn of events on Tuesday, TNT’s NBA studio show broke the news that the deal is done. Citing CNN Sports, TNT’s Adam Lefkoe told viewers that Rivers accepted the role in Milwaukee.
BREAKING: Bucks are hiring Doc Rivers as HC, per CNN Sports pic.twitter.com/CnWsvah2kB
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 24, 2024
It was a curious report for a few reasons. The obvious one, of course, is that CNN Sports isn’t exactly considered a place to get breaking news, but the much weirder thing is that none of the usual NBA insider had this one. That included Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report, who was one of the first to have the news of Griffin’s ouster and is TNT’s go-to NBA insider. (Bleacher Report, CNN, NBA TV, and TNT all exist under the Warner Brothers Discovery umbrella, and Haynes was part of TNT’s NBA coverage on Tuesday evening.)
This isn’t to say that scooping bigger names is impossible, it’s just not especially common. Add in that there was nothing on the CNN Sports website or Twitter account and something seemed amiss here. And then, Bill Reiter of CBS Sports brought word that the report was false, and a whole lot a red flags started to pop up.
Despite that, CNN stated that the report went through its usual editorial process, which made them comfortable running with the news.
NEW: The report that the Milwaukee Bucks are hiring Doc Rivers did indeed come from CNN and was "fully-vetted" by the network before it was passed along to TNT, two sources told @FOS. https://t.co/RoScyJk8j4
— A.J. Perez (@byajperez) January 24, 2024
On why the news wasn't on CNN's website or on any of the network's social channels, the two sources told @FOS that it was likely due to CNN's coverage of the GOP primary in New Hampshire.
— A.J. Perez (@byajperez) January 24, 2024
https://twitter.com/kevinmdraper/status/1750018681986318832
In the aftermath of the game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers that featured Haynes as the sideline reporter, Lefkoe continued to talk on TNT about the deal like it was done, even as Jamal Crawford appeared to express a little skepticism.
In the Lakers-Clippers postgame, TNT is still going with a CNN report that Doc Rivers is being hired as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Adam Lefkoe: "This according to CNN."
Jamal Crawford: "CNN?"
Lefkoe: "CNN." pic.twitter.com/gqcBnG2UI7
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 24, 2024
Not long after this, we got our weirdest twist of this whole saga: Haynes — who, again, is usually the person TNT goes to for these sorts of things — just flat out refuted the report from CNN, saying that there’s no deal in place as of now.
Milwaukee Bucks and Doc Rivers continue to work towards a deal that will make him the franchise’s next head coach, but there is no agreement in place as of now, league sources tell @NBAonTNT, @BleacherReport.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) January 24, 2024
It’s again worth mentioning that Rivers, a currently in-game analyst for ESPN, appears to be the clear frontrunner here, in part because the Bucks front office had him serve as an “informal consultant” to Griffin earlier in the year. We’ll keep you updated on this one.
