Doc Rivers’ tenure with ESPN barely lasted any time at all.
And it certainly didn’t go as ESPN envisioned.
Rivers was hired as the Bucks’ new head coach on Wednesday, according to multiple reports.
He will replace Adrian Griffin, who was fired Tuesday just 43 games into his first year in charge.
ESPN shook up its top — and popular — NBA broadcast team ahead of this season, letting go of longtime analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson.
Rivers was hired, and Doris Burke was elevated in-house to fill their spots alongside veteran play-by-player Mike Breen.
Doc Rivers was hired by ESPN ahead of this season to work as an on-air analyst on its top NBA broadcast team. Getty Images Adrian Griffin was fired by the Bucks just 43 games into his tenure as head coach. APBut now they’ll need to replace Rivers, barely halfway into his first season with the network.
“We wish Doc well and we look forward to documenting the next chapter of his coaching career,” David Roberts, ESPN’s head of event and studio production, said in a statement. “We have a deep roster of supremely talented commentators who will continue to serve NBA fans with tremendous skill, passion and expertise.”
Rivers most recently coached the 76ers, and previously led the Magic, Celtics and Clippers, guiding Boston to an NBA championship in 2007-08.
ESPN executives stressed to him that they did not want his job with the network simply to be a placeholder until his next coaching gig, according to The Post’s Andrew Marchand, but that’s seemingly what quickly happened.
JJ Redick and Richard Jefferson, both of whom, along with play-by-player Ryan Ruocco, make up ESPN’s No. 2 broadcast team, would be the top candidates among analysts to replace Rivers if the network does opt to fill that void, per Marchand.
Doc Rivers last coached with the 76ers. APGriffin led the Bucks to a 30-13 record, the second-best mark in the NBA, but had reportedly begun to lose the locker room before his firing.
In an intriguing twist, the Bucks had actually reached out to Rivers earlier in the season to see if he’d be a veteran voice to help Griffin through his first season in charge, according to The Athletic, and the two sat down during the team’s trip to Las Vegas for the In-Season Tournament.
Rivers now has Griffin’s job, and leaves ESPN with a new hole to fill.
