Following the 62-year-old Marquette University graduate’ official appointment as the 18th head coach in team history on Friday, the Milwaukee Bucks signed Glenn “Doc” Rivers to a multi-year contract.

.

“During his illustrious NBA coaching career, Doc has demonstrated himself to be an exceptional leader and communicator,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst stated in a message issued by the organization. He is well-respected as a seasoned inventor and a championship coach, making him the ideal choice to guide our gifted and experienced group. I would want to express my gratitude to Jimmy and Dee Haslam, Jamie Dinan, and Wes Edens, our owners, for their relentless dedication to victory. I’m happy to see Doc join the Bucks.

Before their Friday defeat to Cleveland, Rivers gave a speech to the squad in the morning. Following the game, Brook Lopez remarked, “I played against Doc a ton in my career.” It makes me happy to have him here. He certainly has a ton of experience, in my opinion. He’s been in the NBA for a very long time as a player. Having an outside viewpoint on the team’s performance this season on the court will be beneficial in this locker room. We are able to utilize his outside perspective and all of his knowledge. We will greatly benefit from it.”

The fact that Rivers will be coaching in the stadium where his college number is retired and providing “great voice” to the squad made Bucks forward Bobby Portis smile.

“Someone, obviously, who’s had success in this league, who has respect in this league, big name coach, top 15 coach all-time, I could go on and on,” added Portis. “But like, he’s a great fit.”

With just a minute remaining in the Cavaliers game, the official hiring of Rivers was revealed, despite the fact that an agreement had already been signed between the franchise and Rivers on Wednesday. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, two prominent Bucks players, declined to talk with the media following the game.

On Monday, Rivers will lead his first game as a coach at Denver.

He was fired after 11 games in 2003 and made his first foray into television as a broadcaster before Boston hired him at the start of the 2004-05 season. Four years later, he guided a Celtics team led by Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to a title.

The Celtics teams that Rivers managed from 2007 to 2012 were his most successful in the postseason; they won the championship in 2008, lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals in 2010, and lost to Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2012. He was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers following Boston’s 41-40 record and their loss in the opening round of the 2013 league playoffs.

In six of his seven seasons as head coach, the Clippers made it to the postseason and won 50 games or more four times. However, they never got past the second round, and he was sacked when the team squandered a 3-1 series lead in the 2020 “bubble” playoffs.

The 76ers, who were signed by Philadelphia at the beginning of the 2020–21 season, qualified for the playoffs three years in a row but were unable to go past the second round. He had been working as an ESPN game analyst this season when he was sacked in May.

At 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Rivers will have his introductory press conference at Fiserv Forum.

.

What is the record of Doc Rivers?

He has a career regular season record of 1,097-763 in 24 seasons with the Orlando (171-168), Boston (416-305), Los Angeles Clippers (356-208), and Philadelphia (154-82).

He ranks ninth all-time and is one of just ten coaches to have won 1,000 games. The only coach in the team that isn’t in the Hall of Fame right now is him.

What is the playoff record of Doc Rivers?

In 19 postseasons, Rivers’ teams have a 111-104 record. He has coached in two NBA Finals and has one championship.

Even though Rivers’ latest teams haven’t made it to the NBA Finals, his new teammates find the record commendable.

“The interesting thing to me is, I know a bunch of talking heads will talk about some of the negative things because that’s what social media is and they like to do,” Pat Connaughton, a Bucks forward, said. “But you talk about the success that he’s had and the ability that he’s had to get teams into positions to win — whether they’ve closed or not — I look at our team and I look at the situation that he’s coming into, we get to those situations I think we got a really good chance to close.”