Bullet point summary by AI

• Bucks center Myles Turner revealed details about locker room discipline during Doc Rivers’ tenure on his podcast Thursday.
• The head coach allowed chronic tardiness without consequences, setting a problematic tone for team accountability.
• The franchise’s star player, Giannis Antetokounmpo was regularly late, raising questions about leadership and team culture.

On Thursday, Milwaukee Bucks forward Myles Turner revealed an interesting tidbit about Doc Rivers’ coaching tenure on his podcast, “Game Recognize Game.”

For those who don’t spend all day on social media (first off, good for you), Turner told his co-host, WNBA star Breanna Stewart, that Rivers would not fine players for being late to team meetings, practices, film sessions, and even flights. He also mentioned that one particular former MVP (who is still performing at an elite level, by the way) was a regular abuser of his leniency.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has a bad sense of time

Yes, the person we are alluding to is Giannis Antetokounmpo. According to Turner, it was not uncommon for flights to depart a few hours later than they were supposed to because Antetokounmpo was running behind.

First off, this reflects poorly on Rivers as a leader. It makes sense why he was often viewed as a player’s coach. But at the same time, you need to make sure that you set a standard for accountability in your locker room. At the high school level (where I coach), our head coach has a rule that if anyone is late to anything without notifying our head coach in advance, they must sit the first quarter of the next game.

As for Antetokounmpo, I get that it is human nature to abuse relaxed guidelines whenever they are presented to you, but as the team’s best player and unquestioned face of the franchise, what kind of message are you sending to your teammates by picking and choosing when you want to show up to stuff?

Turner also admitted that he was without blame in this, and that he would regularly show up an our after he was supposed to be there. But again, Turner is a first year member of the Bucks. It isn’t really his job to hold guys to a certian standard, especially when his team’s two main leaders (Rivers and Antetokounmpo) aren’t doing that.

The first thing that came to mind was an incident involving Antetokounmpo and a Philadelphia 76ers employee from 2022, where the two-time MVP aggressively shoved a ladder out of his way to continue working on his free throws.

At the time, Antetokounmpo received a lot of flack for his mini-meltdown. However, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. We are all human beings, and we are susceptible to our moments. The difference is that Antetokounmpo’s outbursts are televised for the world to see.

But when you look at that situation in conjunction with this kind of news, it makes Antetokounmpo seem more like a true diva than a vulnerable human being who let his emtions get the best of him while having a bad day.

Antetokounmpo has been hesitant to full-on demand a trade from the Bucks, but maybe a breakup between the two parties is in everyone’s best interest.

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