JJ Redick didn’t just take Doc Rivers’ old job — he eviscerated him.
The ex-NBA star joined Mike Breen and Doris Burke on ESPN’s top broadcasting team after Rivers left the gig to coach the Milwaukee Bucks in a midseason hire, but Redick isn’t giving him any leeway in his return to the bench.
“I’ve seen the trend, I’ve seen the trend for years,” Redick said on “First Take” on Tuesday, excoriating his former coach. “The trend is always making excuses. Doc, we get it. Taking over a team in the middle of a season is hard. Just like getting traded in the middle of a season is hard for a player, we get it.
“It’s always an excuse. It’s always throwing your team under the bus. They lose to Memphis, ‘oh it’s his players fault!’ Memphis was playing G League guys and two-way guys. You look at his quotes over the weekend and now he wants to take credit for the James Harden trade to the Clippers working out? He wants credit for that? There’s never accountability with that guy.”
Rivers, in taking over the Bucks in late January, said during his introduction he wished he had waited to take over until after the All-Star break.
In the final game before the break, Milwaukee — at 35-21, the No. 3 team in in the Eastern Conference led by stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard — fell to a shorthanded Grizzlies team, prompting Rivers to quip that they “had some guys in Cabo.”
He also said he was consulted before the 76ers sent Harden to Los Angeles in an early season blockbuster — while he was working for ESPN.
“I was the one, obviously, they consulted,” Rivers told ClutchPoints at the All-Star festivities. “They made calls and I was one of the guys who said it would be a great deal for them because I thought he fit them better than he would fit the Sixers team. I think he’s a perfect fit there.”
Rivers is one of the NBA’s most accomplished coaches, having accumulated a 1,100-770 mark over 24-plus season — including a 3-7 record with the Bucks thus far — and coached Redick from 2013-17, something current Milwaukee guard Patrick Beverley pointed out in defense of his new coach.
“This Man Doc actually saved your career,” Bucks veteran Patrick Beverley wrote on X. “Started you when no one else wanted 2. And u retire go on TV and say that.”
Redick didn’t back off his take and disputed Beverley’s.
“Pat my guy I had a four year offer with player option for the same money to be a starter for a different team. FOH “saved my career,” he responded.
Redick’s first-hand experience with Rivers leant credence to his words for his fellow “First Take” panelists, who predicted some of that accountability.
“I said this, JJ, the second he got the job,” Stephen A. Smith said, “If Doc Rivers — and I’m not talking about this season, because he came in there halfway through — If Doc River between this year and next season, doesn’t win, I think it’ll be his last coaching job in the NBA.”
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