Chris CwikContributing writerMon, April 13, 2026 at 12:48 AM UTC·4 min readThe Milwaukee Bucks are moving forward without head coach Doc Rivers. The team reportedly split with Rivers on Sunday after going 32-50 during a miserable 2025-26 NBA season, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The decision ends Rivers’ two-and-a-half seasons with the team.
Expectations were exceptionally high when Rivers was hired as the team’s replacement for Adrian Griffin, who was fired during the 2023-24 NBA season despite leading the team to a 30-13 record. At the time, Bucks general manager Jon Horst said Rivers was brought in to push the team to another championship, and cited “urgency” as one of the reasons Griffin was let go despite a strong record.
Rivers and the Bucks went 17-19 down the stretch and lost in the first round of the playoffs that season.
Rivers experienced more success the following year, posting a 48-34 record with the team — one loss fewer than the previous season. The Bucks once again lost in the first round of the playoffs.
While both results were disappointing, especially considering why the team hired Rivers in the first place, things really fell apart this season. After an offseason of indecision, the Bucks ultimately decided to hold onto superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. It proved to be a terrible choice.
Antetokounmpo struggled with multiple injuries during the regular season, playing in fewer than 40 games for the first time in his NBA career. Despite rumors the Bucks would trade Antetokounmpo at the trade deadline, a deal never materialized.
Things came to a head at the end of the season. With Antetokounmpo dealing with a knee injury, the star publicly complained about the team not allowing him to return to play. It reached a point where the players’ union got involved, signaling what is very likely the end of Antetokounmpo’s time with the franchise.
While Rivers didn’t factor into that situation, he was far from blameless for the team’s struggles this season. A bombshell report from ESPN’s Shams Charania in April painted the Bucks as an organization in need of an overhaul.
Sources told Charania the entire year “felt like a funeral” thanks to the Antetokounmpo situation and another source said, “This is as toxic of a team situation as any in the league.”
Rivers was specifically called out in the piece for holding a meeting at a crucial point in the season and told players to look up his résumé and history of success in the league. In that meeting, Rivers called out Kyle Kuzma for defensive lapses, leading to Kuzma being benched later that night.
Instead of inspiring the team to play better, the meeting rubbed Bucks players the wrong way, per Charania.
The session was among a number of instances that rubbed large parts of the locker room the wrong way and continued the theme of a season long disconnect between Rivers and the players, according to team sources.
In another meeting, Rivers reportedly called out guards Ryan Rollins and Kevin Porter Jr. for selfish play. Rivers reportedly intended to empower both players with the meeting, but that message wasn’t clear. Following the contest, the team needed a players-only meeting to clear the air, per Charania.
Over his 27 years in coaching, Rivers has emerged as one of the most successful NBA head coaches of all time. His contributions in that role led to Rivers being elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2026. Rivers has a .580 winning percentage as a head coach, and his 1,191 career victories rank sixth on the all-time list. He’ll officially be inducted into the Hall in August.
But Rivers’ teams developed a reputation for premature exits in the playoffs. Rivers’ teams have lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs nine times. In eight of those instances, his teams were the higher seed.
He did break through with the Boston Celtics in the 2007-08 NBA season, however, winning a championship with the team. He led the Celtics back in the NBA Finals in the 2009-10 season, where the team lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games.
With the Bucks, though, it was more of the same. After two first-round playoff exits and a miserable 2025-26 season, the team decided to go a different direction at head coach.