Doc Rivers may have some grudges to settle.
The longtime NBA coach appeared on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” following the Knicks’ Game 1 NBA Finals win over the Spurs. And as he praised the Knicks’ team-building, he took the opportunity to criticize some front office executives around the league.
“I don’t wanna take shots at anybody, but I will say this. There are a lot of front office guys who can go out and get the stars,” he began. “There’s very few of them that can then build a team into a championship team. That’s what you have to do.”
He continued: “You can go out and get these names. But can you make the other moves? You look at Danny Ainge, he’s done it a ton. Brad Stevens has done it, Sam Presti, it took him a while… and he finally kind of figured it out.”
Notably, Rivers — who spent parts of the last three seasons with the Bucks — did not mention Milwaukee general manager Jon Horst or his previous bosses: ex-Sixers president Daryl Morey and Clippers exec Lawrence Frank.
The 2008 champion, who earned his lone ring as a coach with the Celtics, praised the Knicks for filling out their roster with “role players” such as Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges.
He claimed not to know who the role players are on the Spurs’ youthful roster.
While Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns combined for 48 points on Monday, the Knicks got plenty of contributions elsewhere.
OG Anunoby hit some extremely timely shots in the fourth quarter and scored 17 points. Bridges was a plus-11 with nine points, and Hart grabbed 15 rebounds and dished out six assists.
Rivers, 64, finished this season 32-50 with Milwaukee before the two sides agreed to part ways.
He previously indicated to Simmons that he was done coaching after stints with five different teams.
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