Doc Rivers’s previous foray into NBA broadcasting lasted a year.
In 2003-04, between getting fired as coach of the Magic and hired by the Celtics, he spent a season, mostly alongside Al Michaels, on ABC’s top NBA broadcast team.
That was practically a run of Mike-and-Tommy-level longevity compared with Rivers’s most recent stint.
In an unexpected and occasionally baffling turn of events, Rivers left ESPN/ABC’s No. 1 NBA broadcast team this past week to take the Bucks’ head coaching job. That Rivers, who was fired after three seasons as 76ers coach in May, would return to the bench was not a huge surprise.