After the Milwaukee Bucks suddenly fired head coach Adrian Griffin, NBA champion Doc Rivers emerged as a leading candidate to replace him.
Despite the winning record in Milwaukee, Griffin’s departure wasn’t exactly shocking. Rivers, who was the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers until last season, makes plenty of sense as his successor. Rivers was already serving as an “informal consultant” for the team, per The Athletic.
What baffled everyone, however, is that the first outlet credited with breaking the news was CNN Sports. Even though CNN is a trusted news outlet, it isn’t a desk known for its sports department.
So what exactly happened here? How did basketball insiders like Adrian Wojnarowski (currently Rivers’ colleague at ESPN) and Shams Charania get scooped by an outlet that doesn’t have much of a sports presence?
BREAKING: Bucks are hiring Doc Rivers as HC, per CNN Sports pic.twitter.com/CnWsvah2kB
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 24, 2024
During a broadcast of NBA on TNT, host Adam Lefkoe relayed that CNN Sports was reporting that Doc Rivers was accepting the head coaching gig with Milwaukee.
Jamal Crawford, the longtime NBA player who is now an analyst on the show, immediately asked Lefkoe to confirm that the outlet was indeed CNN. How is this possible? Others had the same question. Here is more from Awful Announcing:
“This Doc Rivers report is the first time CNN Sports has been mentioned as a thing in literally decades. CNN Sports Tonight, the highlight show alternative to SportsCenter from Turner, hasn’t aired since 2001. CNN was linked with the Sports Illustrated brand before the platform was taken over by Bleacher Report sports content in 2013. In fact, all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports branding had transitioned to Bleacher Report in the last several years before it literally just rebranded to TNT Sports earlier this month.”
A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports later reported, however, that the news was fully vetted by CNN before it was passed along to TNT.
someone should tell cnn sports that cnn sports is apparently breaking the doc rivers news pic.twitter.com/I6JjTNhyZv
— tryler (@tylerlauletta) January 24, 2024
It is important to note that CNN and TNT are both owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. But at the time of the broadcast, there was nothing on the CNN Sports website that mentioned Rivers.
Perez was told this was likely due to CNN’s coverage of the GOP primary in New Hampshire.
As noted on Twitter/X by New York Times reporter Kevin Draper, a CNN Sports correspondent named Coy Wire appeared on NBA TV (also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) to confirm that Rivers was hired by Milwaukee.
Unless CNN suddenly has a secret NBA source nobody else has, I have a guess at how this happened. It is important to know that Warner Bros. Discovery owns CNN and TNT, and operates NBA TV.
— Kevin Draper (@kevinmdraper) January 24, 2024
Draper added that he was also told by a CNN spokesperson that all of the reporting went through their “editorial process” at the network.
Later in the night, CNN Sports eventually published a story that credited “a source with knowledge of the conversations” but the reporting had no byline.
But this was far from the end of the story and the confusion continued.
Milwaukee Bucks and Doc Rivers continue to work towards a deal that will make him the franchise’s next head coach, but there is no agreement in place as of now, league sources tell @NBAonTNT, @BleacherReport.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) January 24, 2024
Chris Haynes, who is widely considered the network’s top basketball insider and news breaker at NBA on TNT and Bleacher Report (which is also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) refuted the report.
He claimed there is “no agreement” yet in place for Rivers to take over as the head coach of the Bucks. Bill Reiter of CBS Sports also reported that there is no agreement in place.
So what exactly happened here? Was this a giant miscommunication or was CNN Sports the first publication to break this news? Basketball fans had a lot of questions.
This is the strangest thing man https://t.co/P6okQbeCo2
— Michael Sykes, II (@MikeDSykes) January 24, 2024
The biggest upset in the NBA this year is CNN SPORTS beating @wojespn to the Doc Rivers to the Bucks news and he & Doc WORK FOR ESPN. Did Doc even tell the network he was quitting? Lol
— Mike Hill (@ItsMikeHill) January 24, 2024
Doc Rivers agency reps are Atlanta based & around for years.
He’s also a former Atlanta Hawk.
Classy old school move to have his new hiring announced via CNN; also ATL-based.
CNN and TNT played that perfectly heading into the political season. pic.twitter.com/mjfZdBjGiG
— 👑 Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson (@ScoopB) January 24, 2024
Both CNN and TNT are subsidiaries of Turner Broadcasting System.
They’re probably trying to push CNN Sports as a new thing https://t.co/cJQIuJsUTG
— Silas P. Silas (@KennySpenceNBA) January 24, 2024
Very smart of CNN to have Kaitlan Collins break the Doc Rivers hire during the New Hampshire primary coverage. John King will have more analysis shortly.
— Bryan Curtis (@bryancurtis) January 24, 2024
The legacy of CNN Sports is on the line https://t.co/es558uZ89m
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) January 24, 2024
Trying to figure out which one of you is "CNN Sports"
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 24, 2024
No no it’s real… CNN Sports reported th pic.twitter.com/koMRm1dQcP
— jason concepcion (@netw3rk) January 24, 2024
everything about this doc river hiring is amazing from the fact that they're hiring him to the fact that cnn sports broke it
— Zainab Javed (@zrjaved) January 24, 2024
CNN Sports is still a thing in the same way Sears is still a thing
— Blazer Banter (@blazerbanter) January 24, 2024
CNN Sports????
— Robby Kalland (@RKalland) January 24, 2024
bleacher report and nba on tnt citing cnn sports for the doc rivers news is like all the successful professionals in the family having to give it up for the cousin everyone thought was in jail
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) January 24, 2024
