Doc Rivers will make his studio debut for NBC on Nov. 2, slotting onto the network’s Monday night NBA Showtime desk for the first time since NBC hired him as a game analyst in September.
Rivers will join host Ahmed Fareed and fellow analyst Brian Scalabrine on the studio show surrounding Peacock’s Thunder-Cavaliers game, according to NBC Sports, with the game tipping off at 7 p.m. ET and airing on NBCSN. The 65-year-old Rivers was brought aboard primarily to call games, but when NBC announced his hiring in September, the Associated Press reported that he could also be deployed in the studio, and Monday’s show will be the first glimpse of him in that capacity.
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NBC’s studio operation left plenty to be desired in its first season back in the NBA business after a 23-year absence. The network spent big to assemble a flagship NBA Showtime desk of Hall of Famers Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady, and Vince Carter, but the trio of former scoring forwards never meshed, leaving host Maria Taylor to fish for insight on a show that even an all-time Western Conference finals between the Spurs and Thunder couldn’t elevate. Our Brendon Kleen wrote in May that the desk required a major overhaul, singling out Anthony as the weakest link and Carter as a reluctant, overly cautious presence, while urging NBC to promote younger, more outspoken talent already on its roster — like Brian Scalabrine and Austin Rivers, Doc’s son, who led Peacock’s “On the Bench” broadcasts last season.
Doc Rivers, for his part, maintains that television is now his only job. He told Sports Media Watch this week that he’s fully retired from coaching, echoing what he told the Associated Press when NBC brought him aboard last month. In that interview, Rivers said his coaching career had reached its natural conclusion with his induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame earlier this year.
“I honestly can say I’m absolutely retired,” Rivers told the AP. “I had a long run. It ended up in the (Naismith) Hall of Fame (earlier this year), and I am so thankful that I was able to coach and played as long as I did. For the first time, I can focus on giving TV my 100% attention, which I’m really looking forward to.”
The Milwaukee Bucks fired Rivers after last season, ending a run of a little more than two years that began when the longtime point guard turned championship-winning head coach left ESPN midseason to take the job. At the time of his exit, Rivers was ESPN’s lead game analyst and was lined up to call the NBA Finals, and he made the move despite having reportedly assured the network he would not return to coaching. His latest remarks echo what he told Bill Simmons on The Bill Simmons Podcast this summer, when he said he was done coaching and ready to return to broadcasting, though only a few months earlier, Rivers rebuffed Stephen A. Smith when Smith suggested it was time for him to retire.
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NBC hasn’t said how often Rivers will appear on NBA Showtime after Nov. 2. The network is still tinkering with its studio coverage heading into year two, though, and this should show whether a Hall of Fame coach can provide the level of insight Awful Announcing found missing from the desk last season.
The post Doc Rivers to make NBC studio debut next month appeared first on Awful Announcing.
