Just because he’s no longer coaching the Bucks and has been inducted to the Hall of Fame, that doesn’t mean we won’t be hearing from him anytime soon.
NBC announced that they are adding former Sixers head coach Doc Rivers as a game analyst for their NBA coverage. This is interesting for all the network heads out there as Rivers left a contract with ESPN to take the Milwaukee coaching job in the middle of the 2023-24 season. Rivers’ son, Austin, is also a part of NBC’s broadcast team as a sideline
reporter.
Rivers has dipped his toe into broadcasting in his rare seasons in between coaching jobs. He worked at ABC for a year in between coaching the Magic and Celtics, and obviously took the ESPN job after parting ways with the Sixers.
Now that he has stepped away from the Bucks and has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, it doesn’t seem like Rivers will be putting the microphone down to return to the sideline anytime soon. As the NBC news broke, he told Joe Reedy of the Associated Press that he is “absolutely retired,“ but hey, maybe a team that’s hired a new coach this offseason is already having buyer’s remorse.
Of the Sixers league-leading 34 nationally televised games scheduled so far this year, 11 of those will be on NBC or Peacock. It remains to be seen if Rivers will be in the studio or a color commentator, he’s experienced at both, but it’ll give Sixers fans plenty of times to hear his lovely stories from his time in Philadelphia, like how it was Tyrese Maxey’s idea to come off the bench in 2023.
