Former Boston Celtics championship coach says he wasn’t ready to coach contender..

Former Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers said on SirusXM NBA Radio that he wasn’t ready to coach the Milwaukee Bucks this season; a job he slid into when Adrian Griffin was sacked despite a 30-13 record.

“Personally, I’ll be honest, I told our owners when they called, ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this,’” Rivers stated (h/t MassLive). “One of the things they said, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter. We’ve done it now. We want you.’ So that was a tough one. That’s where you had the hesitation.”

Bucks fans cannot be delighted with the statement. Rivers sounds absolutely unexcited to be in the situation he’s in, and his performance thus far (3-7) bears that up. Milwaukee sought to make moves toward being a contender at the trade deadline, adding perennial winner (but never of the big one) Pat Beverley and signing away Danilo Gallinari — someone who may have a grudge with the Celtics because they dealt him before ever giving him a minute of floor-time. — but it’s in vain if the Damian Lillard-Giannis Antetokounmpo tandem never clicks.

Former Boston Celtics HC Doc Rivers criticized by JJ Redick

JJ Redick criticized Rivers before these comments, alleging he makes excuses every season for why his teams don’t win the big one anymore.

“I’ve seen the trend, I’ve seen the trend for years,” Redick said (h/t The New York Post). “The trend is always making excuses. Doc, we understand it. Taking over a squad in the middle of a season is hard. Just like getting traded in the middle of a season is terrible for a player, we get that.

“It’s always an excuse. It’s always throwing your team under the bus. They lose to Memphis, ‘oh it’s his players fault!’ Memphis was playing G League guys and two-way guys. You look at his statements over the weekend and now he wants to take credit for the James Harden trade to the Clippers working out? He wants credit for that? There’s never responsibility with that guy.”

Beverley fired back on his coach’s behalf, but the damage is done from Redick. He went on the ESPN show he is now an analyst for and insulted his former Los Angeles Clippers coach to a point of no return.

Tough scene for a man who presumably regrets leaving Boston when he did, considering the Celtics’ rebuilding process didn’t continue long after he abandoned ship.

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