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Doc Rivers is reportedly the Bucks’ next head coach. Sixers fans have thoughts.

The fired Sixers coach will be taking over in Milwaukee after the team fired Adrian Griffin.

Former Sixers head coach Doc Rivers could be moving from the broadcast booth back to the bench.
Former Sixers head coach Doc Rivers could be moving from the broadcast booth back to the bench.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer
    by Gabriela Carroll
    Updated 
    Published 

UPDATE: According to multiple reports, Doc Rivers has reached an agreement with the Milwaukee Bucks to become the next head coach of the team.

FROM EARLIER

Milwaukee, currently second in the Eastern Conference with a 30-13 record, shockingly fired head coach Adrian Griffin on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.

One of the top contenders for the job? Former Sixers coach Doc Rivers, The Inquirer confirmed. Rivers was fired by the team in the offseason after failing to advance to the conference finals for three straight years and is currently on ESPN’s primary NBA broadcast team. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, he’s also been serving as an unofficial consultant to the Bucks.

Griffin’s firing came just 43 games into his head coaching career. In the offseason, the Bucks also controversially fired previous head coach Mike Budenholzer, who won the franchise a title in 2021 and led them to the top of the East in 2023 before losing in the first round of the playoffs.

» READ MORE: Doc Rivers will reportedly become next coach of Milwaukee Bucks

Sixers fans, upon hearing that one of the top contenders in the East was about to hire Rivers, were excited.

Rivers hasn’t brought a team to the conference finals since 2012 despite making the playoffs in all but one of those seasons.

The Sixers have been similarly cursed, making the playoffs in each of the last six seasons but not advancing past the second round in any of them, including the last three with Rivers before replacing him with Nick Nurse in the offseason.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid channels idol Kobe Bryant as he scores 70 and breaks Wilt Chamberlain’s Sixers scoring record

With the Bucks currently in second and the Sixers in third in the Eastern Conference, could there be a second-round matchup of an unstoppable force and an immovable object?

» READ MORE: Sixers’ Joel Embiid: ‘Pretty cool’ to be in ‘same conversation’ as Wilt Chamberlain with 70-point game

But the idea of playing, and potentially losing, to Rivers in the second round for some was more stressful than funny ...

Some wondered how Rivers, who failed to win championships with the Chris Paul Clippers teams and with Joel Embiid and the Sixers, manages to continue to interest NBA owners and executives as a head coach option.

» READ MORE: Inside Sixers: Joel Embiid’s afterglow, an Eagles fan’s lament and more from a recent surge

But overall, Sixers fans and NBA Twitter were excited about the potential for Rivers to coach another team, if only for the potential comedy factor.