Stephen A. Smith can’t keep a secret.
On his SiriusXM show on Mad Dog Sports Radio on Wednesday, a listener mentioned Grizzlies guard Ja Morant potentially being traded to the Bucks and Doc Rivers in the offseason.
Smith didn’t exactly shoot the idea down, but he interjected with some different news.
“It’s not gonna be Doc Rivers [coaching the Bucks next year] because Doc Rivers is gonna retire at the end of this season,” Smith said.
“Doc Rivers has been coaching for close to 25 years, this is it for him. He’s gonna step away.”
It’s unclear whether Smith’s claim has legs, but he did work with Rivers at ESPN for part of the 2023-24 season before the coach took on his role with the Bucks.
Rivers’ tenure in Milwaukee has been a nightmare, going 91-88 across two-and-a-half seasons and failing to make it past the first round of the playoffs.
This season, the Bucks are five games out of the Play-In Tournament in the Eastern Conference at 26-35.
With rumors swirling about a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo trade in the offseason, it looks like Milwaukee will begin a rebuild as well.
Rivers has never been a fan of blowing things up. He moved to the Clippers in 2013 after the Celtics started a rebuild earlier in his career.
Even though he’s under contract through next season, he could just retire instead of continuing, or Milwaukee could simply let him go.
Amid his 27th year as an NBA head coach, the 64-year-old Rivers owns a 1,188-851 career record across stints with the Magic, Celtics, Clippers, 76ers and Bucks.
He hasn’t won a title as a head coach since 2008 with Boston.
If he does retire, one option could be returning to ESPN with Smith.
In his brief stint behind the mic, Rivers was one of ESPN’s lead NBA analysts alongside Mike Breen and Doris Burke. Since then, the company has struggled to replace him.
But first, Rivers needs to prove Smith’s claim correct.
