According to reports, one of the main reasons behind the decision to fire Adrian Griffin stemmed from the fact that he lost the Milwaukee Bucks locker room. A narrative about how Giannis Antetokounmpo “lost faith” in the rookie coach has also emerged, which supports the claim that Griffin lost control of his own locker room.
Bucks General Manager Joh Horst is well aware of the whispers surrounding the team’s massive decision, and for his part, the high-ranking executive isn’t letting things get out of hand.
Milwaukee Bucks GM Speaks Out on Nasty Adrian Griffin Rumors
Horst came to Griffin’s defense as he discussed the nature of the latter’s sudden exit from the team. Horst denied the rumors surrounding Girffin’s command of his team, or rather, the supposed lack thereof:
“My biggest frustration was that, that’s the narrative,” said Horst, via Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “That’s just not my opinion. That doesn’t mean that I’m right or wrong, but my opinion, my assessment and ownership’s assessment – this wasn’t an assessment that he lost the locker room, that there was dysfunction, that there were players that were jumping off the ship. That’s just not our assessment.”
Horst did drop a bit of a caveat by saying that this was his own estimation. He also said that while this is the conclusion that the front office came to in their assessment of the entire situation, it’s also possible that this might not have actually been the case.
Horst also went on to say that there were indeed some issues within the squad. However, he is adamant that collectively, these were not enough to push Griffin out:
“And in my opinion, that’s just not really the true narrative,” said Horst, of a locker room in turmoil. “Did some of those things exist? Absolutely. Is that uncommon in the NBA? No. It’s almost 20 years I’ve been doing this, it happens all the time.
“… Adrian Griffin did a hell of a job. He’s an incredible person. I believe he’s going to be a very good coach going forward. This was a chance for us to resource our team in a different way, after a change from when we hired him – and that’s why we did it.”
That change comes in the form of former NBA champion coach Doc Rivers, who should be officially announced as the team’s next head coach very soon.
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