‘He Doesn’t Necessarily Have This Super IQ’: Doc Rivers Takes Multiple Shots At Giannis Antetokounmpo
MILWAUKEE — Former Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers took multiple shots at Giannis Antetokounmpo during an appearance on Bill Simmons’ podcast.
The Bucks hired Rivers during the 2023-24 season. Rivers went 97-103 in the regular season and 3-8 in the playoffs with Milwaukee.
“I liked Giannis a lot. I liked him more as a dude,” Rivers told Simmons. “He’s interesting. He’s not easy. He’s not easy because he plays at this crazy downhill pace. He’s really a difficult guy. … He has this great passing ability, but he doesn’t necessarily have this super IQ at the same time. It’s really a strange thing, and he really has one way: downhill, force, force. Every play, he wants to force it.
“I wish he learned how to execute better. He’s one of those guys … that have never needed to execute because they can do it on their own. But that doesn’t help the team. And I told Giannis this, the thing he needs to still learn is the value of execution. How important it is when you’re in practice and shootarounds to lock in on execution. And now he has a coach [Erik Spoelstra] who is as good as there is in execution.”
The Bucks traded Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat this offseason and replaced Rivers with Taylor Jenkins.
Rivers joined NBC in September as an NBA analyst.
Rivers: Giannis ‘Didn’t Want To Be The Bad Guy’
Rivers told Simmons that Antetokounmpo kept “yo-yoing” by not publicly requesting a trade last season.
The 2025-26 season for the Bucks was greatly overshadowed by the question of Antetokounmpo’s future with the franchise he led to the 2021 NBA championship against the Phoenix Suns.
Throughout last season, Antetokounmpo told multiple outlets that he was committed to the Bucks and would “never” demand a trade.
However, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania that Antetokounmpo and his agent, Alex Saratsis, had consistently informed the Bucks since May 2025 that he wanted a trade and believed it was best for both sides to part ways.
The Bucks traded Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to the Heat for Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, three first-round picks, one pick swap and one second-round pick this offseason.
“Giannis wanted out, but he was a Buck. And he didn’t want to be the bad guy,” Rivers said. “He wanted [GM Jon Horst and owner Wes Edens] and those guys to say, ‘We’re trading you,’ instead of him asking for a trade. To me, that was the game that was being played.”
Antetokounmpo won two MVPs, one Finals MVP and one Defensive Player of the Year award with the Bucks. The future Hall of Famer won back-to-back MVPs in 2019 and 2020 and became the third player in NBA history to win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season in 2020.
A top-75 player of all time, Antetokounmpo averaged 24.1 points, 9.9 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.2 blocks per game in the regular season and 27.0 points, 12.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.3 blocks per game in the playoffs with the Bucks.
Miami is 3-6 in Year 1 of the Antetokounmpo era, while Milwaukee is 1-7 in Year 1 of the post-Antetokounmpo era.
