Doc Rivers coached Giannis Antetokounmpo for two and a half seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks, but while he likes the man, he didn’t enjoy coaching him. Rivers appeared on the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, where he spoke about his frustrations with Antetokounmpo.
“He’s not easy because he plays at this crazy downhill pace,” Rivers said. “He’s really a difficult guy. I was telling someone this: he has this great passing ability, but he doesn’t necessarily have super IQ at the same time. It’s really a strange thing. And he really has one way. Downhill, force, like every play. He wants to force it.
Advertisement
“There’s times where I wish he did one thing,” Rivers continued. “I wish he learned how to execute better. He’s one of those guys that you get a lot of them from the U.S., AAU guys that have never needed to execute because they can do it on their own. But that doesn’t help the team.
“And I told Giannis this: the thing he needs to still learn is the value of execution,” Rivers added. “How important it is when you’re in practice and shootarounds to lock in on execution. And now he has a coach who is as good as there is in execution.”
Rivers is, of course, referring to Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra. Spoelstra has long been regarded as one of the best coaches in the NBA, but he has struggled this season after the Heat went for broke in the summer.
After missing the playoffs in 2026, the Heat sent Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, Kasparas Jakucionis, three first-round picks (2026, 2031, 2033), a 2030 first-round pick swap, and a 2033 2nd round pick to the Bucks for Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis. They believed this move would get them back to title contention.
Advertisement
It’s still very early, but the Antetokounmpo era in Miami doesn’t look like it’ll be a successful one. The Heat dropped to 3-6 in the 2026-27 season following a 120-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday. Even their biggest doubters couldn’t have seen them starting this poorly.
Now, Antetokounmpo is having a great season individually. The 10-time All-Star is averaging 27.3 points, 12.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 0.9 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game in 2026-27.
Those are fabulous numbers, but Rivers thinks Antetokounmpo’s style of play isn’t helping the Heat. He appears to think Spoelstra might need to have some difficult conversations with the 31-year-old.
Entering the offseason, we didn’t know where Antetokounmpo would be at the start of the 2026-27 season, but we did know he wouldn’t be on the Bucks. An eventual breakup seemed inevitable throughout the 2025-26 season, despite the two-time MVP never asking out. Rivers thinks Antetokounmpo didn’t do that because he didn’t want to be the bad guy.
Advertisement
“I thought Giannis kept yo-yoing,” Rivers said. “I think when I look back on that whole situation, Giannis wanted out. But he was a Buck, and he didn’t want to be the guy, he didn’t want to be the bad guy… He wanted Jon [Horst] and Wes [Edens] and those guys to say, ‘We’re trading you,’ instead of him asking for a trade. To me, that was the game.”
This is indeed what it seemed like. Antetokounmpo would talk about how much he loved Milwaukee and the Bucks, but also mention how winning was important to him. He didn’t want those fans to hate him for wanting out, but they were never going to.
Antetokounmpo had given his all on the court for the Bucks during his 13 seasons in Milwaukee after being selected with the No. 15 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. He notably ended the team’s 50-year title drought in 2021 and will forever be loved in the area.
Most Bucks fans understood that the ship was sinking and that Antetokounmpo wanted to go to a team that could contend for a title. The Heat are looking like the wrong choice right now, though.
Advertisement
As for Rivers, he left Milwaukee before Antetokounmpo. The 65-year-old had taken over as head coach in January 2024 and resigned in April 2026. Rivers went 97-103 in his two and a half seasons with the Bucks. Under him, they were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs in 2024 and 2025, and then missed the postseason in 2026.
