Jason Kidd and Doc Rivers both coached Giannis Antetokounmpo on the Milwaukee Bucks, but they have very different perspectives regarding the now-Miami Heat superstar. Rivers recently said Antetokounmpo wasn’t easy to coach, doesn’t have a “super IQ,” and can only play one way, with force downhill.
Rivers’ comments unsurprisingly went viral, and so Kidd was asked on NBA Today whether he sees where the 65-year-old is coming from.
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“I don’t,” Kidd said. “I think when you talk about stars, they are hard to coach, but they want to be coached. But Giannis’ superpower is to get downhill, and he makes plays… Doc saying that his IQ [isn’t high], I disagree with that. I think Giannis understands how to play the game. His forcefulness, getting downhill is what it’s all about, and so when he causes a problem, he’s one of the top five players in the league.”
What’s interesting about these different perspectives is that they don’t necessarily line up with when these two coached Antetokounmpo. Rivers was his head coach for his final two and a half seasons with the Bucks, by which time he had cemented himself as a top five player in the NBA.
Kidd, on the other hand, played a big role in Antetokounmpo developing into the player he is today. The Bucks had hired him as their head coach in 2014, a year after they selected the forward with the No. 15 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft.
Antetokounmpo was still a somewhat raw prospect when Kidd took over, and you’d think he’d be the one talking about not having high basketball IQ and not knowing how to play the game. It’s the other way around here.
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It was under Kidd that Antetokounmpo became an All-Star for the first time in 2017. He also won Most Improved Player that year and made the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams.
Kidd notably played the 6’11” Antetokounmpo at point guard, a position you’ll be entrusted to play only if you understand the game. The 53-year-old clearly appears to have enjoyed their time together, which ended when the Bucks fired Kidd in January 2018.
Getting back to Rivers, he also shared that Antetokounmpo needs to learn how to execute better. He compared the 10-time All-Star to AAU players who have never needed to execute because they can do things on their own. Rivers added that this does not help the team win.
Now, with Antetokounmpo leading the way, the Bucks had made the playoffs nine years in a row from 2017 to 2025. He also famously powered them to a championship in 2021, ending a 50-year title drought.
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In an ideal world, Antetokounmpo would remain a Buck his entire career, but it became clear over the last year or so that he wasn’t going to win another championship in Milwaukee. They finished with a 32-50 record in 2025-26 and missed the playoffs, after which Rivers resigned as head coach.
Antetokounmpo was then traded to the Heat in the summer, and he set his sights on winning a title in Miami. Unfortunately, they haven’t gotten off to the greatest of starts. The Heat fell to 3-6 after a 120-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday.
It’s these struggles that prompted those comments from Rivers, but Kidd, whom the Dallas Mavericks parted ways with in the summer, believes all will be well over time.
“You want to go to war with Giannis because you know he’s going to give everything he has,” Kidd said. “And he did win a championship and as you talked about, two-time Defensive Player of the Year. Understanding [a] new situation, I think, plays a big part right now for Giannis. Once his feet are settled, we’re going to start seeing the block shots and the pounding of the chest, but I think we should talk about that.
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“He needs to be called out, and hopefully [Erik Spoelstra] will show him that you need to get the ball in the paint, and let’s get some layups,” Kidd added.
Antetokounmpo is averaging 27.3 points, 12.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 0.9 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game for the Heat in 2026-27. Those are fabulous numbers, but if the team doesn’t start winning, more questions will start being asked about the 31-year-old.
We’ll see Antetokounmpo in action next when the Heat take on the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET. If they lose to the lowly 1-8 Kings, then that panic button will probably get hit.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
