MILWAUKEE — Doc Rivers was coaching the first NBA game that Giannis Antetokounmpo remembers seeing on television.
“We had this old TV,” Antetokounmpo recalled Saturday night. “I had to hit it on the side.”
Antetokounmpo was a teenager at the time watching Rivers coach the Boston Celtics’ 2008 NBA Finals victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. Thirteen years later, Antetokounpmo would have his own NBA title after leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their first championship in half a century.
Now the two of them are trying to win another championship together. Rivers held his introductory press conference Saturday as the Bucks’ coach after being hired to replace Adrian Griffin, who was fired after only 43 games.
“I’m excited,” Antetokounmpo said. “He’s a legend in this league.”
Rivers is equally thrilled as he prepares to make his Bucks debut on Monday night when Milwaukee opens a five-game trip against the reigning champion Denver Nuggets.
Coaching in Milwaukee represents a homecoming of sorts for Rivers, a former Marquette guard who says he got much of his basketball knowledge from former Golden Eagle coaches Al McGuire, Hank Raymonds and Rick Majerus. Rivers’ No. 31 Marquette jersey hangs from the rafters of Fiserv Forum, the home arena of the Bucks and Marquette.
“It’s just really cool being in an arena, coaching in an arena and your jersey’s hanging above you,” said Rivers, who was at Marquette from 1980-83 before playing 13 seasons in the NBA. “I can turn to the players and say: ‘Guys, I swear to God, I played basketball. Just look up. I swear that’s me.’ It’s really cool.”
Shortly after his news conference, Rivers received a standing ovation and gave a brief pep talk to the crowd as he was introduced during a first-half timeout in Marquette’s 75-57 victory over Seton Hall. Rivers faces quite a challenge. The Bucks were 30-13 when Griffin was fired, a testament to the franchise’s sense of urgency while it has Antetokounmpo and seven-time all-NBA guard Damian Lillard on its roster. The Bucks went 2-1 over the last four days under interim head coach Joe Prunty.
After the Philadelphia 76ers fired him last year following a third straight second-round playoff exit, Rivers began this season working as an ESPN analyst. This opportunity brought him back for a 25th season as an NBA head coach.
“I wasn’t going to just take a job,” Rivers said. “I’ve been contacted several times this season, and I wouldn’t even take the call. I was dead serious. If the right opportunity opened, I would listen. If not, I was fine.”