Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers sparked debate in the NBA circle by addressing a report from ESPN’s Shams Charania about the Bucks’ locker room dynamics and the internal tension.
During a recent podcast appearance, Rivers also seemingly dropped a major hint about the origin of the leaked locker-room exchange that involved the now-infamous “Google me” comment.
Doc Rivers Sets the Record Straight on Bucks Locker Room Drama
In a recent report, Charania mentioned that Rivers told his team to ‘look at my resume, Google me’ following a blowout loss to the Bulls.
Speaking to Michelle Beadle, Lou Williams, and Chandler Parsons on “Run It Back”, Rivers hit back at Charania’s framing of the Milwaukee locker room.
“That was taken so out of context because I was kind of referring to, and I don’t want to get too deep into it. I wouldn’t say anything about the meeting because it’s no one’s business … When you have articles like this, you know, there’s one guy talking, which is pretty obvious if you read the article, who it is,” Rivers said.
“But it was taken out of context to what I was trying to say. I had a guy that kept talking about his stats, and so I was basically saying the same thing. Well, I have stats, too, you know. So, it was more taken out of context of what was said,” he added.
Not long after the podcast clip surfaced, fans and analysts claimed the unnamed player was Cam Thomas, who was waived by the Bucks in late March after a brief 18-game stint marked by offensive struggles.
“Cam Thomas may have been the source that reportedly leaked comments about Doc Rivers’ “Google me” statement in the Bucks locker room …” NBA analyst Jake Weinbach speculated.
“Soooo. Cam Thomas was the mole. WOW. Shams wrote a full article b/c Cam Thomas was disgruntled. Sheesh,” CreamCityCrossover commented.
“I can’t recall any NBA player ever making so many bad decisions one after another,” NetsDaily posted.
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Rivers also discussed the “fractured relationship” between Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. “We have a great relationship,” Rivers said. “He [Shams] talked about our locker room thing, and I was laughing like, yeah, we had a tough locker room day… That’s what happens in a locker room …”
The report and Rivers’ comments come amid what has been a very difficult season for Milwaukee. Going 32-49 with one regular-season game remaining, this is the first time the Bucks will miss the playoffs since 2015-16.
For Rivers and Milwaukee’s front office, the coming months will be key in retooling the roster and also sorting out Antetokounmpo’s future with the franchise.